Schools across Rhondda Cynon Taf have been taking part in a special challenge to showcase how Christmas is “The most wonderful time to Re-use and Recycle!”.
We received over 100 entries to ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time to Re-Use’ Christmas competition and the submissions have been amazing – proving once again how talented our young people in RCT are!
The challenge, sent out to all schools across the County Borough, asked younger children (Foundation Phase) to create a Christmas decoration out of waste materials and unwanted items and older children (Key Stage Two) to design a colourful poster to illustrate how wonderful RE-USING is at Christmas.
The competition links to this year’s Christmas recycling campaign, which is called “It’s the Most Wonderful Time to RE..” which stands for - Re-use, Repair, Recycle and Re-heat and looks to raise awareness about re-using, repairing or re-gifting items, recycling all that we can and reducing food waste during Christmas - all in the name of spreading the cheer to give us a greener new year!
After much deliberation, the winner in each category was agreed as;
- Noah Phelan, Year 1, Tylorstown Primary School.
- Imogen, from Cwmdar Primary School.
The winning schools will now receive a £100 cash prize each.
Noah and Imogen will also receive a gift voucher of £20 for their green efforts.
Due to the exceptional entries this year it was also decided to choose two runners up from each of the categories, who also scooped £15 gift cards. The runners up were:
- Jac Winter, Year 1, Abercynon Community Primary School
- Thomson Hughes, Year 1, Abercynon Community Primary School
- Jacob Azzopardi, Year 6, Brynnau Primary School
- Jake Howell-Jones, Year 5, Abercynon Community Primary School
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services who had the difficult task of choosing the winners, said:
"The entries received have been phenomenal. This has been one of the hardest competitions to choose a winner from, they were all brilliant.
"I want to thank everyone who entered the challenge, and congratulations to our winners, Imogen and Noah! I hope our green residents will keep up their great work and help us have the GREENEST, waste-free Christmas ever.
"Rhondda Cynon Taf Council encourages residents to keep up the excellent work all year round. The Council provides an accessible and innovative recycling service complemented by ongoing public education and awareness-raising.
"The support of our householders towards our food waste recycling has been amazing - This year we are proud to say that we smashed the 70% Welsh Government target for 2024/25 and there has been a 21% increase in food waste recycled and a 33% decrease in black bag waste collected, along with an 11% increase in dry recycling!
“I’m sure that, together we can keep up the great efforts and ensure that we keep hitting and smashing any target set by the Welsh Government and make 2026 an even Greener and record-breaking New Year."
For more information and tips on recycling your Christmas waste follow us on Facebook or Instagram or visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/ChristmasRecycling
Posted on 22/12/2025