Paul Hartley and Elyse Marr from Guide Dogs Australia with guide dog Wallace at the upgraded Return and Earn facility in West Wollongong. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
Your empty cans and bottles can help create the best behaved 10-month-old labrador you’ve ever seen.
Wallace, the lab in question, proudly attended the launch of the upgraded Return and Earn Wollongong network.
Wallace is training to become a guide dog when he grows up.
Thanks to a charity partnership between Return and Earn and Guide Dogs Australia more dogs like Wallace will learn how to become an essential support for people who are vision impaired.
Paul Hartley is location lead for Guide Dogs Australia in Wollongong. He said it cost about $50,000 to raise and train a guide dog.
The process takes 18 months to two years, and alongside food, vet visits and preventative medications, the dogs also receive a dedicated puppy advisor, to nip any naughty behaviour in the bud.
“More than 80 per cent of our funding comes from the community,” Paul said.
“We’ve received $65,000 so far through our partnership with Return and Earn, and it runs until Sunday 19 October so we’re hoping we’ll make even more to raise and train dogs like Wallace.
“It also helps us do mobility services, occupational therapy, technology training and vision assessments to make a more accessible world for people with low vision.”
James Dorney is CEO of TOMRA Cleanaway, which operates the Return and Earn scheme.
He said since 2017 the scheme had contributed more than $73 million to local charities, reduced drink container litter by 73 per cent and collected almost 14 billion containers.
Collected bottles and cans are reprocessed and in the case of plastic bottles are back in circulation within eight weeks.
The upgrades to the Wollongong network include new machines at the West Wollongong Hellenic Club, North Wollongong and Corrimal.
New technology means all returns can be handled by the same machine, eliminating the need to switch between glass and plastic.
The screens are also larger and easier to read.
Member for Wollongong and Minister for the Environment Paul Scully said residents in the Wollongong LGA had returned more than 390 million containers.
He praised the efforts from individuals all the way to the council providing baskets on public rubbish bins for returnable containers to be deposited and collected.
“I like to think that says we’re massively engaged in the recycling effort; others might like to reflect on how much we consume,” he said.
“This means we don’t lose things from the circular economy, we reduce the amount of rubbish on our beaches and there’s the benefit for organisations like Guide Dogs Australia.
“My own surf club was a beneficiary; it’s been embraced locally.
“My niece loves the arrangement – I collect them, she collects the cash on the other end.”
Kiama residents awaiting the reopening of their local Return and Earn haven’t been forgotten about.
TOMRA Cleanaway is still on the hunt for a suitable site – and it would welcome any suggestions about where that could be via the Return and Earn website.
