Rainworth students are turning old crisp packets into blankets to help the homeless

Dawn House School in Rainworth, a residential school for speech and language for children aged between eight and 18, is using old crisp packets to make insulated blankets which will be donated to homelessness charities.

Barrie Cook, aged 63, a residential support worker at the school, said: “I work in the residential section and we seem to get through a lot of crisps. And we just thought there must be something we can do with these crisp packets.

“So we looked into it and we found out it takes about 80 years for a crisp packet to decompose, so we thought there must be something we can do.

“We found a charity called the Crisp Packet Project, based in Sussex, and discovered you can iron together crisp packets.

“You have all the reflective side facing one way and the branding facing the other way and they make reflective blankets, like people use when they’re going up a mountain, or after they’ve run a marathon.

“We didn’t believe it, so we had a go and it’s a bit fiddly, as you have to slice the crisp packet down one side so you can open them out, then get all the grease off – that’s the hardest bit.

“Then you lay them all out on an ironing board, place baking parchment over them then run an iron over them on a low setting and they fuse together and make a blanket. We’ve also made them waterproof by putting water on the top and bottom.

“We’ve put boxes in the staff room and in each of the different classrooms, in the dining room and in the residential area to collect crisp packets.

“We’ve been collecting since November and we’ve got hundreds of different packets and the childrens have really taken it on board. They’re bringing packets from all over now for us to make into blankets.

“When we’ve got a big stock we’re going to take them to Shelter and Framework and then they will distribute them.”

For more information about the Crisp Packet Project visit crisppacketproject.com