Recycled Christmas tree contest winners rewarded |22 December 2020

To celebrate the Christmas season and to encourage people to lead a more sustainable life, the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change launched a ‘Recyclable Christmas tree’ competition back in November.

After a gruelling month of fierce competition by schools and homes, the department rewarded the best of the best yesterday in a special ceremony.

The prize-giving ceremony took place at the offices of the headquarters of the ministry located at the Botanical Garden. It was attended by Minister Flavien Joubert, principal secretary for environment Alain Decomarmond, principal secretary for climate change Wills Agricole, director general for public education and community outreach division Jeanette Larue, invited guests and the winners.

The competition was initially organised for schools, but after interest from the public the ministry decided to include homes as well.

“It was not an easy thing to choose the top three winners for both categories as we had many amazing entries. Both schools and homes gave finished products that were very high in quality which made choosing a winner very difficult,” said Ms Larue.

She added that the people who judged the competition are not employees of the ministry.

Minister Joubert thanked all those who took part in the competition, saying “the competition was a big success and it shows the interest that people have in living more sustainably”.

He added that young people should be engaged in protecting the environment and noted that due to the success of the competition more should be organised in the future, not just by the ministry but by other partners and non-governmental organisations.

“It was very encouraging to see people eager in participating in the competition as many people are now interested in protecting the environment and through the activity we have the people who are ready to save the environment,” he said.

He further stated that this activity also highlighted the way we consume and dispose of products.

“We need to sit and think about our negative impacts on the environment and what we can do to reduce it,” added Minister Joubert.

The minister ended his address by stating that the efforts made to create Christmas trees out of recyclable materials has shown that we do not need to keep importing decorations from other countries and he hopes that this competition inspires more people and becomes a yearly tradition.

The aim of the competition is to promote the idea of re-using raw materials and having a pro-environmental behaviour. It also helps to show that it is possible to make something out of nothing and to protect the environment easily. The competition is also to develop art skills of children and creative thinking in terms of recycling.

The task involves making a Christmas tree in any manner, using different types of waste, for example plastic bottles, cardboard, tins, used packaging, etc. The works are to be made only or mainly from recyclable waste, it was acceptable to use natural materials examples cones, straw, seeds. The size and form of the Christmas tree was at the participant’s discretion (standing, hanging on wall, etc.).

The prizes were funded by the Seychelles Islands Foundation, H Savy Insurance and the Seychelles National Parks Authority.

The competition itself was fairly close in the individual houses category but after a long deliberation and considerable hype on social media, Andrea Bristol from Anse Royale was awarded first place. She was followed by Clara Tamatave from Au Cap and Arianne Poussou from Anse Aux pins.

In the school category, Perseverance secondary came in first while Mont Fleuri primary and Plaisance primary took second and third places respectively.

The department of environment also organised an in-house competition and the Botanical office came in first while English River climate change office was second and Praslin ‘Fond B’Offay’ office third.

“Our Christmas tree included wood from pine trees located at Providence as well as egg trays and old palm leaves,” said Angele Baptiste and Elvis Marie, winners with the Botanical office.

They noted that the completion was OK and it took them two weeks to put the tree together and their theme was red, gold and silver.

Home category winner Andrea Bristol stated that the competition wasn’t hard as he made use of materials used every day.

“My experience in the kitchen as a chef helped me make a creation that is equally sustainable as well as visually appealing,” said Mr Bristol.

In the homes category the first, second and third placed winners received R3,500, R2,500 and R1,500 respectively and a coco de mer each while for the schools category the prizes were the same except that the latter received a book each to boot.

Christophe Zialor