I’ve collected a record 19,500 crisp packets for a heart-breaking reason…it’s my passion

A DAD who has collected a record-breaking 19,500 crisp packets is preparing to pack in his passion after ten years. 

But Gary Key, 59, is determined to keep going until he hits his target of 20,000 packets in the new year. 

The Sun revealed in May 2020 that he had broken a world record with 14,200 packets.

It means the dad from Cottingham, East Yorkshire, has rounded up 279 on average per month since then.

And it puts him on track to reach his target of 20,000 by February.

Gary told The Sun: "It would be a great achievement. I know I can get it done.

"I really do think I will have to call it a day. I'll be 60 in May - I'm getting on. It's been a long time, it really has.

"I've been collecting the crisps for ten years and I've done nothing with them. All I'm doing is still collecting them and grilling them.

"I have to carefully think about doing something with them at the end of the day. I don't know what I could do.

"They are building up and building up. I've had to put them in a really big tub."

He had thought about getting a mould to put them all into to turn it into a sculpture.

Mr Key, who is unemployed, grills the crisp packets down into tiny balls and stores them in a box in his shed.

Sometimes he has them floating in his sink and says they look "amazing" because of all the different colours.

He said: "They are so colourful. It's relaxing really seeing them all in the water. It could make for a really good water feature."

He began collecting packets in 2012 as a distraction when his partner Joanne Richardson was diagnosed with breast cancer and given six months to live. 

He said: "I do it for her and it is something to escape my mind. It sorted me out.

"That's given me a lifeline because I was collecting them when she was alive.

"People say it's amazing really. They say 'how have you managed to keep going?'"

He kept any of the 100 crisp packets his family munch through in a week as well as picking them up off the street.

And he admitted the habit is unusual but insisted it is what he loves to do, adding: "I have really enjoyed doing it. I really have."

Eco-warrior Gary started keeping the empty packets in 2012 because he felt guilty about sending them to landfill.