Local schools that took part in the Council-organised ‘Yellow Pages Challenge’ recycling competition have won hundreds of pounds for their schools and saved the equivalent of 94 trees.

As part of the competition, pupils in each participating school had to collect old Yellow Pages directories and return these so that they could be recycled. A total of sixteen schools took part in the competition and collected 2,775 directories. The top three performing schools would receive a cash prize of £300, £200 and £100 respectively.

The overall winner was Scarva Primary School whose pupils collected an impressive 9.04 directories per pupil. St Johns Primary School in Gilford and Gilford Primary School took second and third place in the competition for collecting 5.5 and 4.7 directories per pupil.

On presenting the prizes to the winning schools, Council Chairman Elizabeth Ingram said: “We had a very positive response to this competition. Well done to the schools that took part and diverted 5.55 tonnes of paper from landfill. This is a tremendous achievement by local schools and it shows how committed the young people in our district are to looking after the environment.”