Girl, 13, makes crisp packet blankets for homeless

Savana made seven blankets as part of a Duke of Edinburgh volunteering scheme

A 13-year-old who has made survival blankets for homeless people using crisp packets has said she did it to "make a difference close to home".

Savana, from Hastings in East Sussex, has made seven blankets, each from roughly 56 crisp packets, to fulfIl the volunteering requirements for her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award.

The blankets were for the Crisp Packet Project, based in St Leonards, which creates survival blankets and sleeping bag covers out of plastic waste.

Savana said it was "fairly easy" to piece the packets together once she was given a tutorial but "you have to be precise".

Each blanket is made up of around 56 crisp packets

She said: “I didn’t actually know what you could do with crisp packets but once I went there, I saw what they could be made into and it was very interesting."

Through word-of-mouth among family, friends and those in the local area, she collected hundreds of packets to use for the blankets.

Her favourite part of the project was "seeing how many blankets we made", she said.

"It was also nice knowing that they were going to go out to people somewhere to help them," she added.

Pen Huston, Crisp Packet Project founder, said: “All the packets are fused together with clear plastic waste from a sofa company, stopping this plastic going to landfill.”

Ms Huston said Savana took to the project like a “duck to water”.

Savana’s blankets were given to the charity London Homeless Welfare Team.

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