A RECYCLING event led by a York Green council candidate could be ‘cloned’ around the city.

Bishopthorpe Parish Councillor and candidate for City of York Council elections on May 2 Carole Greene, said she hopes a recent Recycling Day in New Earswick Folk Hall leads to more recycling events taking place around York in future.

The very first event - started by Carole in Bishopthorpe in 2008 - aimed to reduce the wastage of Christmas, and concentrated on taking cards, wrapping paper, stamps, aluminium foil and unwanted gifts to prevent them being thrown out.

Carole ran her eleventh Grand Recycling Day for Bishopthorpe and Acaster Malbis in January 2019, and she hoped the idea would be copied at locations around the city to help spread the word, improve recycling levels, and support people in need.

She said: “If enough areas of York decide to do this, there will always be a Recycling Day not too far away and everyone could find a Recycling Day nearby within a reasonable time frame, so that they don’t have to store unwanted items for a long time.

“It’s important that trying to boost recycling does not generate a lot of extra car journeys from one side of York to the other as this rather defeats the object of saving carbon emissions.”

Carole said holding the recycling day after Christmas, as it was this year, made sense, and lists of items she would like to see donated could be updated regularly, with glasses and tools - including gardening, joinery or bicycle toolkits - vitally important to be sent overseas.

She said: “Each year we have added more things and now it’s really quite a long list. Spectacles have been the most successful thing - last year 96 pairs were donated.

“They go to Africa and give people the means to earn a living. We benefit all kinds of different charities and people feel pleased that they are not throwing things out.”

Over the years, items have been added to the list for one year only, with used towels collected in 2012 to be sent to an orphanage in Rwanda.

Carole said she hoped similar events could be run by parish councils and neighbourhood forums, and she would be willing to help to set them up.