Parishioners are asking the people of Hanwell to help them win the 2015 Wrappers to Riches collection contest and a share of £500 in charity prizes.

St Thomas Church is participating in the UK-wide 2015 Wrappers to Riches recycling fundraising contest to see who can save the most used biscuit wrappers from landfill.

The churchgoers are busy collecting as many used biscuit wrappers as they can in an effort to help both the local environment and the church itself.

A combined £500 in charity prize donations will be awarded to the top 20 collectors across the country, so to help improve their collections and chances of being a winner St Thomas church is calling for support.

The contest, which is running from March 2 to May 31 at 6pm, is part of a recycling fundraising scheme set up by McVitie’s and recycling experts TerraCycle called the McVitie’s Biscuit Wrapper Brigade.

The scheme aims to reduce the billions of wrappers being sent to UK landfill as a result of most local councils being unable to recycle the mixed plastic packaging biscuit wrappers are comprised of.

As well as working towards becoming the 2015 Wrappers to Riches winners, the fundraisers from St Thomas Church earn four TerraCycle points (normally two) for the weight of each biscuit wrapper of any brand they send in for recycling during the contest.

Each point can be redeemed for a one pence contribution for the school, charity or non-profit organisation of the sender’s choice.

St Thomas Church’s efforts in the 2015 Wrappers to Riches Collection Contest can also help to beat the overall total of 115,000 biscuit wrappers that were saved from UK landfill during the 2014 contest.

Pauline Britton, from the church, said: “St Thomas Church joined the Biscuit Wrapper Brigade in 2012 and so far we have saved 2,712 biscuit wrappers from landfill.

"We also collect on the Tassimo Brigade the Kenco Coffee Packaging and the Ella’s Kitchen Brigade and to date have raised £721 on TerraCycle’s recycling fundraising schemes which has been used to repair our church organ.

“We are asking the wider community of Hanwell to support us by saving their biscuit wrappers for us to help boost St Thomas Church’s chances of becoming a 2015 Wrappers to Riches Collection Contest winner.

"Simply drop any brand of used biscuit wrappers or the other types of waste we collect back to our collection box which is located in the front porch of St Thomas Church on Boston Road in Hanwell W7 2AD between the hours of 8am to 5pm seven days a week.”