Exclusive by Alan Quick

A CREDITON woman and a local primary school have been honoured as “super-recyclers” and recognised with awards.

Esther Mann from Sustainable Crediton’s Waste Action Group was presented with the Community Group Recycling Hero award at the fourth Recycle Devon “thank you” awards held at County Hall in Exeter.

As in the previous three years, Devon residents nominated their “recycling super-heroes” in various categories which included schools and businesses.

Recycle Devon then shortlisted the 61 nominations and picked category runners-up and winners.

Esther won the Community Group Recycling Hero award because she managed two hugely successful Give and Take pop up shop events in Crediton last year where people could drop off unwanted goods and take away those left by others - all for free!

The shop was open for three weeks in total and attracted more than 7,000 people plus amazing publicity including coverage on “Spotlight” and “BBC Radio Devon”.

During the events, a fantastic 8.5 tonnes of goods changed hands, with many people leaving extremely happy with what they had picked up!

Esther is also a much-valued leader of the Sustainable Crediton Waste Group whose mission is to raise awareness of recycling and waste reduction in the community. The group has carried out initiatives such as a plastic bag-free Crediton and also organised plastic recycling collections.

A runner-up in the same category was Wendy Monday from Winkleigh Community Recycling.

Wendy Monday and the residents of Winkleigh work tirelessly to increase the amount of plastics being recycled in the village.

Originally it set up manned collection points and then progressed to timed collections with Peninsula Waste Services.

To date, Winkleigh residents have diverted 15 tonnes of waste from disposal. The recycling credits received are used for community projects and the scheme has saved countless journeys to the nearest recycling point 15 miles away.

The School Recycling Hero (Group/Class) category winner was the Eco Warriors Group from Morchard Bishop Primary School.

The Eco Warriors group was formed just over a year ago and since then the children have had a significant impact on increasing recycling at the school.

One team is responsible for composting, they collect all the fresh fruit and vegetable waste, mix it with paper towels and take it to the hot boxes in the school garden to start the compost process.

A second group collects and sorts the cardboard for recycling to be taken to the village collection point and the third group collects the black boxes for recycling paper, plastic and tins, sorts and squashes the materials ready for collection.

The main impact of all this recycling is that the School has reduced their landfill waste and has replaced their large waste bin with two smaller ones.

Sarah Mclintock from Okehampton College was the School/Educational Establishment Recycling Hero (Adult) category winner.

Sarah has been the driving force behind all sorts of projects including introducing a separate food waste collection at the college, purchasing better recycling bins, introducing the teracycle scheme and a clothes recycling scheme.

She also organises student-led assemblies on waste and recycling and is helping to shape the environmental curriculum.

As well as this she has helped the college to achieve green flag Eco Schools status and takes a lead in staff briefings to improve ‘staff’ attitudes to sustainability!

Sara Stockman and Crew from Mid Devon District Council was the Collection Crew/Operative (Recycling, Garden, Food or Refuse Collector(s) category winner.

Sara and the recycling collection crew collect recycling in the Uffculme area for Mid Devon District Council.

The ceremony was hosted by Matt and Caroline from Heart Radio’s breakfast show.

The awards recognise those people who do that bit extra to help ensure Devon remains clean and green. Recycle Devon is a partnership of 10 councils including Devon County Council, eight district authorities and one unitary authority.

All winners and runners-up received special hand-made Recycle Devon awards, upcycled from glass bottles supplied by Devon company, Glass ReForm based in Barnstaple.

They also enjoyed a scrumptious cream tea sponsored by Waitrose who have supported the awards since their inception.

Chairman of Devon Authorities Waste Reduction and Recycling Committee (DAWRCC) Councillor Rodney Cann said: “These awards have been a great success, 850 people voting for their recycling hero.

“Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up. And thank you to Waitrose, Glass ReForm, Heart and everyone who was nominated and shortlisted.

“It’s thanks to you that at last count 55.4 per cent of the total rubbish collected or taken to the county’s numerous recycling centres was recycled and makes Devon one of the top recycling counties.”