Turning recycling into a Tent

Written by Robert Kendall

It all started with my dream of getting back out camping solo and being a conscientious citizen. Part of my job requires me to drive around parts of Canberra inspecting various public spaces, memorials, roads, and car parks looking for defects. I was somewhat dismayed by the amount of litter that was about and in particular, the recyclable kind of litter (being bottles and cans).

As a keen cyclist, walker, and camper I have always practiced leaving an area in a better state than when I arrive, so noticing so much rubbish I applied the same practice and began to pick up both litter and recyclables whenever possible. Scanning the Mont webpage and drooling over pictures of the Moondance 1 person tent I came up with the idea to save and cash in my recyclables to fund the purchase of a new tent.

And so, my quest began….

I was surprised how easy it was to collect cans and bottles and I soon combined all my walks and rides with collecting. I worked out that I would need to collect 8,100 cans and bottles to reach my target, which was kind of daunting at first but bit by bit I was able to chip away at the total. I had an old wool bale and worked out that I needed to fill it 12 times to reach the total.

With the unfortunate assistance of the litterbugs of Canberra (and the Mont 4 day discount sale) I am now down to 1,269 cans/bottles to go and have decided, once I reach my goal, to continue my collecting and donate the proceeds to charity.

Collecting cans and bottles has become a habit and an enjoyable pastime, it gets me outdoors on even the most miserable of days and nights. While collecting, I have found that roadside collections are very lucrative, sadly due to people throwing their drink containers out the car window. I have also found that I can visit the same stretch of road on a weekly basis and still find plenty of containers which is a good thing for my collections but a bit of a concern from a litter point of view. Another profitable site was a recent music festival at the Epic Showground where many attendees arrived only to discover they were not allowed to bring cans and bottles in. This resulted in piles of cans and bottles (some even full) discarded at each gate, where security was happy for me to remove them. I have also arranged a can and bottle bin at my workplace where my colleagues can drop off their empty containers.

I am glad that I am cleaning up my city I get a lot of satisfaction knowing I am also preventing thousands of cans/bottles from ending up in our waterways or getting smashed on our bike paths. The fact that I am continuing to do this, and the proceeds going to charity is a bonus I consider very worthwhile.

Out of interest, the first charity I plan to donate to is the Fred Hollows Foundation.