Rory makes a packet for charity
LAST week, 28-year-old Rory Perkins had around 38,600 empty crisp packets in his spare room.
If you’re wondering, that amounts to 62kg – alongside the 58kg he’s previously gathered and boxed up in the past nine weeks or so.
That’s because what started as a simple idea to help the environment, and raise money for charity, has snowballed into a project which has taken Blaenau Gwent by storm.
Not bad for one person trying to do their bit.
Rory, from Blaina, said: “It’s gone crazy. I didn’t think that many crisps are being consumed in a seven or eight-mile radius. I didn’t think it would really take off.”
Once a week, Rory will visit the businesses, schools and libraries in the area that have saved the empty crisp packets especially for him.
After filling his car full to the brim, he will store them before boxing them up and sending them off once a month to TerraCycle – a company offering a free recycling programme to collect hard-to-recycle waste.
For each box he sends off, money is also raised towards Guide Dogs Cymru, and Rory’s £5,000 goal is to train a dog from scratch.
The animal-lover said: “I’m quite lucky with my shift patterns so on my days off I’ll go around once a week to collect [the packets] from businesses and schools. There’s at least a car full if not more.
“Once collected, it takes me around two or three hours to sort through them and box them up, and once boxed up they are stored in the spare room until the end of the month.”
For Rory, inspiration for the idea first came after seeing a similar initiative on social media. From there he decided to get involved with TerraCycle himself to see how much he could collect.
So far, his project has raised more than £100 for Guide Dogs Cymru, and he hopes to raise another £200 from the 62kg in crisp packets collected in September.
The product operator said: “I was just scrolling through Facebook and saw the Guide Dogs were collecting them and there was pictures of people sending packets in.
“I do eat quite a lot myself and I thought by doing something like this I could help them. Then my partner said they were only getting pennies from that and asked could they be getting more?
“I know a lot of people doing it around Newport and different areas, but as far as I’m aware I’m the only one doing it publicly in Blaenau Gwent.
“Without the support of the community I wouldn’t be able to do it.”