Cairns Primary School youngsters have charity blanket all wrapped up!

Children in Cambuslang have taken on an initiative to help the homeless this Christmas by providing survival blankets made out of crisp packets.

Primary six pupils at Cairns Primary School decided to start recycling the materials after learning that it takes 80 years for a single crisp packet to degrade.

Determined to reduce landfill waste on the back of COP26, the youngsters undertook their ‘Christmas Crisp Challenge’, collecting the packets over November, aiming to make the blankets for those sleeping rough during winter.

By the end of their efforts, a total of 550 crisp packets were collected which is enough for three full survival blankets and another 100 towards a fourth.

Leading the project, teacher Louise McIntyre said she was inspired by a similar initiative run by a former homeless man in Somerset who went viral as the Iron Man for ironing hundreds of foil from crisp packets together to provide material for rough sleepers.

Mrs McIntyre said: “As part of our learning this term about COP26, the whole school made commitments to the planet to help reduce global warming.

“During this time, my class learned that it takes 80 years for a single crisp packet to degrade so we wanted to try to do something to reduce the landfill waste from our snacks.

“Since the hope is that the blankets will be made in time to help the homeless at Christmas time (and when the weather is colder), we named our initiative the Christmas Crisp Challenge and presented the idea at assembly.

“We have been collecting crisp packets three times a week and washing these.”

As a health promoting school, Cairns Primary have not been encouraging any pupils to eat crisps, but merely encouraging them to recycle the packet if they do eat them and put the material to better use.

Mrs McIntyre added: “The children were keen to do their part to help stop global warming and we committed to lots of different small acts to reduce our carbon footprint.

“They were alarmed to hear that crisp packets take so long to degrade and keen to help others less fortunate than themselves. “As responsible citizens, we hope that by doing our part for the environment, we can also help those less fortunate than ourselves.”