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In May Collecting Abandoned Cans And Bottles Earned Me $185.70 In Cash!

Helping to clean up the local environment and making a little money at the same time.

Joel Brown
5 min readJun 7, 2022
Photo by Roberto Sorin on Unsplash

I live in Queensland, Australia and just over three years ago, the government introduced a container refund scheme. The scheme refunds 10cents for every eligible drink container returned to a refund point.

The scheme will reduce the impacts of drink container litter and help our environment and our communities at the same time. — Queensland Government

As a child, I remember seeing on many bottles and cans “5c refund at SA/NT collection depots in state/territory of purchase.” I remember asking why we could not do the same in Queensland. While I do not remember getting an answer, it was something I always watched out for.

I got started on the first day back in November 2018, when the scheme started in Queensland. Right from the start I was returning my container along with ones I would pick up from all over the place. I would find them in parks, carparks, along the roadside and from friends.

Over the first 18 months, I set a feverish pace and returned over 37,000 containers before COVID…

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Joel Brown
Joel Brown

Written by Joel Brown

My favourite topics walking, photography, motivation, ideas, and writing. Let’s have Coffee @ https://ko-fi.com/joel_brown

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