The historic town of Birdsville is welcoming its first ever container refund point as part of Queensland’s Containers for Change scheme.
The scheme provides a 10 cent refund for recycling eligible drink containers, such as plastic and glass bottles, aluminium drink cans, and cartons.
The refund point, located conveniently at the Birdsville Fuel Service on 65 Adelaide Street, in the centre of the town, will open for business at 8.30am on March 21 with giveaways of branded merchandise including drink bottles and cooler bags for the first 25 customers.
The site is the 347th container refund point to open in Queensland since the start of the scheme in November 2018, with many more refund points set to open this year.
Owner Jenna Brook is passionate about her hometown, as the fourth generation of her family born and raised in Birdsville she welcomed the opportunity to provide a recycling refund point to her community.
“I am involved with a number of businesses in our town, and people are so excited they’ve been saving up their eligible containers.”
“We get a lot of tourists, especially around big events like the Birdsville Races which sees our town population swell from around 110 to 7000, so we’ve got signs around town about recycling and how guests can keep our famous environment beautiful.”
“The location is fantastic, when people stop by to fill up their petrol, they can drop off their containers and fill up their wallets at the same time,” she said.
Ms Brook’s business recently made headlines for having some of the cheapest fuel in the country, providing an extra money-saving incentive for those visiting Birdsville Fuel Service to recycle their containers.
The Birdsville depot will service the surrounding areas of Birdsville, Windorah, Bedourie, Boulia, Farrers Creek, Amaroo, and the infamous small town of Betoota, made famous by the satirical newspaper of the same name.
Ken Noye, CEO of COEX the non-for-profit that runs the container refund scheme, said the Birdsville refund point reflects the commitment to service as many communities as possible across the state.
“In regional communities we see some of the highest rates of returns for eligible containers, and where we see people really rally behind local operators and often donate their refunds to local schools, clubs, and community groups.”
“With even more refund points set to be rolled out this year across the state we want as many people as possible to be aware of the scheme, and have somewhere convenient to recycle.”
“Almost 800 jobs have been created as a result of the Containers for Change scheme in Queensland and we expect that number to just keep growing.”
The Birdsville Fuel Service depot will be open Monday-Friday 8.30am-12pm, Saturdays 9am-12pm, and will be closed on Sundays.
For more information on containers eligible for refunds and refund point locations visit the Containers for Change website.
Media contact:
m: 0408 915 422
e: media@containerexchange.com.au
