25 July 2019
It took a couple of creative Kiwi kids an hour, one hammer, one screwdriver, a couple of sets of wheels and their nana's old blue recycling crate to win the Great Crate Challenge.
Cousins 12-year-old Cooper and 13-year-old Baxter Scott were the winners of Waipa District Council's crate challenge, a competition designed to encourage Waipā residents to reuse their old recycling crates.
Submitted on their behalf by cousin Bayley Quin, the boys came up with the idea to transform their crate into an effective and speedy wheelie bin to push each other, and their dog Hudson, up and down the driveway.
It was a good bit of Kiwi ingenuity. They made it with whatever they could find in my garage and we bought two skateboards which they took the wheels off and put onto the crate. They worked away at it diligently and have had so much fun on it since making it, said their nana, Janet Hodgson.
Their prize included a Magic Bullet, Keep Cup, metal straws, bamboo brush, reusable hessian sack, beeswax wrap cloth, Love Food Hate Waste container and two cookbooks.
Second prize was won by Isabelle Verriere who turned her crate into a box for her rhubarb to grow in while third was won by Carol Oates who also reused her crate as a growing box for plants.
Council waste minimisation officer Sally Fraser said the blue recycling crates had proven a hit with the community who turned up in large numbers at Council's two crate drop off days held over the weekend, to collect unwanted crates.
We had a fantastic turn out at both events of people wanting to grab some extra crates. In Te Awamutu about 250 were dropped off and they were all given new homes by keen gardeners and people looking for storage options. In Cambridge we had just under 200, almost all of which were rehomed.
Recycling hard plastic is tricky so the fewer we need to recycle the better. I would encourage anyone who would still like to rehome their crates to check our Facebook page for others who may be looking for some or contact local schools.
For ideas on how to reuse your crate head to waipadc.govt.nz/bluecrates.