A COUNCIL'S donation of old computers is helping sick children learn and reducing waste disposal.

Durham County Council, which has twice picked up The Green Apple Award for its green policies, is giving 500 redundant PCs to a charity that provides education facilities in hospital schools.

About 40 PCs a week will be given to Cybercyle, a charity dedicated to reducing IT waste in landfill, which will upgrade them.

The work is carried out by young unemployed people, who refurbish the equipment and gain an NVQ in the process.

When the PCs have been upgraded, they will be passed to Express Link-up, which provides computers to hospitals so young patients can continue their studies.

Chris Collins, the county's head of IT services, said: "It's not viable for us to upgrade the PCs, but this scheme means they can be put to good use, provide training for the unemployed, and not end up in a landfill site which costs the county council money."

The council's head of environment resources, David Miller, said: "It's important to cut electronic waste because it is full of heavy metals that will escape and contaminate the environment. Extending the life of computers makes a stand against the throwaway culture."