Southampton’S greenest milk float has hit the road for a special yuletide round.

With a trusty team of elves, Eco Ernie, Southampton Solent University’s award-winning ecofloat, is taking recycled items collected from across the city centre to help poor people this Christmas.

The float is helping to distribute starter kits to struggling people setting up new homes in the city and surrounding area as part of a partnership with local poverty charity SCRATCH (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship.)

Solent Students’ Union president Dan Prendergast said: “We thought a festive round would be a great opportunity to sort through our collections and provide charity donations – ’tis the season to be generous.”

Eco Ernie, named as a finalist in the 2011 National Recycling Awards, is part of a scheme introduced two years ago in response to residents’ concerns in the Polygon area of the city about piles of rubbish left outside student homes.

The project, run by university staff, students, council officials and community volunteers, has seen tonnes of unwanted clothes, electrical goods, sports equipment and other household items resold or reused.

Some of the many duvets collected also went to provide bedding for rescued horses via a student entrepreneurship project called The Horse Power Company