Lance and Aileen Cause from Living Gems Caboolture Riverfront showed a can-do spirit back in January 2019 when the Cash for Containers program was announced.

“I was at the bar – which is not a usual thing at all – and suggested that we should collect the cans and bottles and take advantage of the program,” Aileen notes with a laugh.

“Someone said, ‘oh, no one is going to bother for ten cents’, so I called over to Lance and said we’d do it.”

How many bottles and cans have they collected over three and a half years?

“Oh goodness! I’m not sure of the number, but it’s a lot,” said Aileen.

“To the end of last year, we’ve collected $13,000 for the Home Owners’ Committee,” adds Lance.

“And at ten cents a piece you can do the maths. This year, so far, we’ve raised $1,200.”

Homeowners have thrown their support behind Lance and Aileen by regularly donating their empty cans and bottles to add to the collection from the Country Club bar.

“The money we raise goes to a special fund which gives money out to groups in the resort who might be struggling with fundraising,” said Lance. “For instance, last year when the Green Thumbs Gardening Group lost the vegetable garden to floods, we were able to help them rebuild with the funds raised.” Read this story on pages 4-5.

But it’s more than just the fundraising opportunity that drives the Causes, it is also the opportunity to actively recycle cans, bottles and plastics.

“It’s so important to us that things don’t go to waste if they don’t need to,” said Aileen.

The couple are delighted by the news that wine and spirit bottles will be eligible for the Cash for Containers program from November.

“We’ll be able to turbo charge our fundraising then,” said Aileen. “At our functions most people buy a bottle of wine for the table, so there will be quite a few of them!”