Times are obviously very tough when you see people ‘dumper diving’ for bottles, cans and other items that can give them 10cents a pop & more!
Just starting out on my daily walk, I came across a bloke – probably in his early 30’s – going through the bins outside where we are staying in Hervey Bay QLD. I’d seen him elsewhere a few times before doing the same thing on the ‘day before garbage’ collection here.
So I stopped and asked … “you look pretty busy… is it worth going through all that stuff for a few cents a bottle?”
He looked up and said “well it pays the bills mate!”
’Pays the bills!... Naturally that got me thinking about how many bottles you would need to get even $10. – of course, that’s 100 bottles. So if you aimed for $100 you would need 1,000 bottles!
WOW – that’s a LOT of bottles.
When you think about it though, even if that person has a job or is on welfare or helping /supporting someone else, that $10 might just be a simple meal or two, the last few dollars needed to help pay the rent, or maybe even some ‘fun’ dollars for kids.
Anyway we ended up chatting a bit more and he was grateful for my support as I said I’d seen him before and that I thought he was actually very respectful of the bins he was going through.
Sadly so many people throw garbage into the yellow recycling bins without a moment’s thought.
This bloke pulled that misplaced ‘rubbish’ out and placed it into the correct red/garbage bins without question. I actually saw this happen when it was obvious no-one was watching him, so he was – to me – pretty genuine.
Of course you don’t have to be ‘needy’ to do this. You can in fact collect as many 10c refund bottles – plastic or glass and more – and simply donate/forward those funds to many worthy causes.
There are a number of sites online – details below - & no doubt there are many more – just check recycling options via your local council….
Of course, the other benefit is that all that ‘wasted’ plastic, glass, tins etc gets recycled properly rather than ending up in dumped waste, in rivers, beaches, forests and more.
So thanks to my new ‘mate’ – I really appreciate what you are doing and you’ve inspired me personally to think even more about recycling options – not just for the 10c refunds but also for a bigger – longer term benefit for everyone.
SOME RECYCLING OPTIONS;
https://www.containersforchange.com.au/
©2022 – Brian Pickering
