The Melksham Foodbank has received a welcome boost after staff at the local household recycling centre made a donation of ‘recycled’ money they have recovered.

Over the past year the Hills Waste Solutions’ staff at the David Sprules household recycling centre in Melksham have been collecting coins inadvertently ‘recycled’ by the public.

Robin Pearse, site supervisor for Hills Waste Solutions who operate the recycling centre, said:  “People bring items to us for recycling and don’t realise that sometimes odd coins are included – in sofas, drawers, boxes and the like.

“The coins get dislodged and fall out onto the floor when the large recycling containers are moved and we usually find them when we are sweeping up afterwards.

“We thought it would be a great idea to give the money back to a good cause in Melksham, as the money has come from residents of the town.”

Recycling operative Elaine Mewton said:  “The saying goes that if you ‘look after the pennies, the pounds take care of themselves’ and we were surprised that the amount we had collected in two glass jars came to just over £33.”

Hills Waste Solutions decided to not only match the amount which the staff had recovered, but added a little more to round the donation up to £100 for the Melksham Foodbank.

Maureen Vince from the Foodbank said, “It was a lovely surprise to get a call to say that there was a cash donation. It will some way to help with our running costs and allows us to purchase items which we are short of.”