New Skoda ad is a recycled piece of cake for Wandsworth junk experts

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You have all seen the cake/car but what to do with it now?......

THE most talked about commercial of the year is now the greenest after a two tonne cake created in the shape of a life-sized Skoda was completely recycled – as compost.

The new Skoda Fabia advert sees a team of bakers creating a six foot cake with a combination of sponge, chocolate, jelly and icing sugar.

But they were left with a giant problem – what to do with it next. Although all ingredients were edible, days under studio lights meant the cake was declared unfit for human consumption.

So the UK’s biggest junk collection company, Wandsworth based ANY JUNK? was called it to take it away. And ANY JUNK? – which through recycling and reuse diverts from landfill more than 40 per cent of the junk it collects had the perfect solution – use it as fertilizer on allotments.

Jason Mohr, founder of ANY JUNK? which collected the car from Shepperton Studios, said: “The Skoda cake was enormous, definitely the largest item of food we’ve ever been asked to junk. Its chassis was made of sponge cake, its headlights were glacier mints and its reverse lights were strawberry jelly.

“We try and recycle most of the items we pick up and the Skoda cake car was no exception. We took it to a composting facility in East London where it was turned into natural fertilizer.”

The cake disposal is one of the most unusual requests ANY JUNK? has so far dealt with, according to Jason (pictured above). The former corporate financier, who launched the business two years ago, said: “People get rid of pretty much anything you can imagine, but this takes the biscuit, or cake, I suppose.”

ANY JUNK?, which collects items in its distinctive white elephant-themed shiny red trucks, has won a number of green awards for its recycling efforts, including Best Environmentally-Friendly Business from Wandsworth Council.

Just last week, ANY JUNK? won a prestigious competition on Capital Radio, in part for its green credentials. The company, which also has bases in Bath and Bristol, collects everything from old sofas, books and bric-a-brac to unwanted electrical appliances, office junk and builders’ rubble, and always tries its best to recycle or find a new home for the things it picks up.

Skoda kept parts of the Fabia cake, such as the marzipan door mirrors and the chocolate speedometer, as souvenirs. But the rest was composted and will be used by residents of Clapton, London, to fertilise their allotments. And with 42kg of chocolate fudge, 12.5kg of raspberry jam and 10kg of white chocolate chunks – the vegetable patches of Clapton will be very healthy indeed.

June 11, 2007