TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Conservationists in Taiwan have come up with a creative way to save injured birds of prey while tackling plastic waste by making the most of the plastic sleeves that contain stimulus vouchers.

Aimed to stimulate the economy, the hard copy version of the stimulus vouchers has drawn public scrutiny, as the nine paper vouchers are encased in a plastic sleeve. Critics say the sleeve is useless and a source of plastic waste, with the Ministry of Economic Affairs rushing to quell controversy with a list of suggestions to put it into good use.

As a solution, the non-profit Raptor Research Group of Taiwan (RRGT) has called upon the public to donate unwanted plastic cases to the rescue of birds of prey. According to the organization, the sleeve works perfectly as a prosthetic tail feather wrap to keep rescued raptors in cages from further harming their delicate feathers while they recuperate.

The cause has been well-received, and within hours sleeves came pouring in. The organization had to issue a notice on Facebook announcing the end to what it described as an unexpectedly successful campaign and urged the public to pay equal attention to the protection of other types of wildlife in the island country.

A variety of other ideas for reusing plastic voucher sleeves have sprung up online, including making them into memo clips on office desks and cases for face masks or receipts, wrote UDN.

(Facebook, Raptor Research Group of Taiwan photo)

Stimulus vouchers (Taiwan News photo)