Five hundred thousand. That’s how many tonnes of timber waste are disposed of every year in Victoria alone – or looked at another way, an awful lot of trees that are going to waste. So it’s great to hear that Waste Converters Recycling and the Victorian Woodworking Association are doing their bit to turn things around with their Create from a Crate competition. Launched earlier this month, the challenge gives artists, furniture designers and woodworkers a year to get creative and rework a packaging crate into sculpture, furniture – or even a musical instrument (2003 entrant John Sargeant produced a violin from his crate!). Amcor Flexibles will be supplying timber from their waste stream for the competition, which has prize money totalling $7000. So if you’re handy with a hammer or have a nagging desire to get out your nail gun, check out the details of the competition online. Everyone who enters will be doing a crate thing for the environment!