A new photo competition for exhibition pictures of people taking action to improve their local environment is offering £10,000 worth of prizes.   The Love where you live photo competition is sponsored by not for profit recycling organisation Alupro to celebrate the quarter of a million trees they have now grown in the UK and Africa because more and more people recycle their aluminium drinks cans and foil  -  a tree for every tonne recycled.

The competition encourages amateur photographers to take pictures which will inspire visitors to a special exhibition next April 2010 to look with fresh eyes at their surroundings as we face up to climate change, and to do what they can to look after it.

The £10,000 prize pot covers six UK regions, including prizes for schools and under 18s, with a top award of £3,750.   There are two prize categories: ‘local landscape and wildlife’ and ‘people having an impact on where we live’.

“This is a great way to encourage people to look around them, and see just how important it is to look after the environment ” says Alupro executive director Rick Hindley “and with some fantastic prizes to be won we hope this new take on the wildlife competition will attract lots of entries.   Recycling aluminium is not just about waste management  -  it’s 20 times more energy efficient than making it from the raw material bauxite and, as the metal can be recycled over and over again, it lasts a lifetime.”

Full details from www.lovewhereyoulive.org.uk.   The competition is open  to amateur photographers only.  Closing date for entries is February 28, 2010.