Published Thursday 28 January 2021 at 11:51
A Blackburn boy is set to enjoy an extra special birthday after his lucky mum scooped the top prize of £500 in a recycling competition!
Chloe Whittle, 23 and of Mill Hill, was ‘speechless’ when Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council contacted her to tell her she was the winner of the Christmas competition.
The proud mum-of-two was chosen at random from more than 6,000 entries.
She is now planning to spend the prize money, kindly sponsored by the council’s recycling partner SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, on an extra special birthday for her two-year-old son, Tommy.
Chloe, who lives with partner Liam, said:
I couldn’t believe it when I go the call! I never expected to win!
The competition popped up on Facebook so I decided to give it a go – I’m so glad I did. It really helped me with recycling over Christmas too with lots of easy tips.
This money will make such a big difference. I’m going to use it to buy my little boy a new tablet for his birthday and do some improvements around the house.
At times like this, it’s such a lot of money and I’m absolutely over the moon!
The competition, with £1,000 worth of cash prizes including £100 each for 5 runners-up, was launched to encourage recycling at Christmas and is part of the Council’s campaign to make it easier to know ‘what goes where?’
The goal is to increase recycling rates – which are currently around only 30% and some of the lowest in the country – to 50% by 2025.
Councillor Jim Smith, Executive Member for Environment at the Council, said:
It’s such a pleasure to be able to present Chloe with this prize.
We had a fantastic number of entries to the game and I’m pleased to say, lots of high scores! I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to take part and congratulate everyone who won a prize.
We want to do everything we can to encourage residents to recycle more – this competition was a good way for people to test if they knew which bin to use as well as promoting what can and can’t be recycled?
I’m really glad it’s been a great success. The new website – www.recyclebwd.org – has lots of info on, I’d encourage people to take a look – there may even be a new competition soon!
The Council revealed that the latest figures for contaminated waste – items that have gone in the wrong bin – have reduced from 30% to around just 12% since the roll out of the new blue bin and the launch of the campaign.
Ed Best, Regional Manager at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said:
We were delighted to support Blackburn with Darwen Council’s recycling campaign by donating the prizes for the competition.
We are already seeing an improvement in the quality of the material we are processing, meaning that more and more material can be sent on to be recycled.
The recycleBwD.org website is the perfect one-stop-shop for local residents to double check what material goes in which bin.
The five runners-up in the competition, who have been contacted, were:
Jade Hudson, Rizwana Patel, Caroline Berry, Susan Howarth and Steve Black.
To find out more about recycling and how to best use your bins, please visit: www.recyclebwd.org