An Australian collected bottle and can deposits for years and was able to afford a down payment for a house after 7 years. And he has no intention of stopping collecting.
How much money has he collected? The English-speaking magazine ABCNews spoke with Australian Damian Gordon, who spent years collecting hundreds of thousands of cans and bottles to return them for recycling.
After 7 years, he earned 45,000 Australian dollars from recycling, which is approximately 25,134 euros. Gordon explained that last year (2024) he was able to put down a deposit for a two-bedroom house with the money.
Even artificial beings can earn money:
Festivals are lucrative when you want to collect (deposit) bottles
What exactly did he do? Gordon collected cans and bottles over a period of 7 years and returned them through the “Return and Earn” deposit system. The “Return and Earn” program is an initiative of the NSW government (Government of New South Wales), funded by contributions from the beverage industry. There is a return of 10 Australian cents per can and bottle. That’s about 5 euro cents.
While he has a full-time job during the week, Gordon also volunteers at events like music festivals. These are particularly lucrative because he could collect thousands of bottles and cans that visitors left behind and did not clean up.
He also mentioned that he doesn’t just collect cans, but that festival-goers often leave things like camping gear, fairy lights, and cowboy hats behind: “Once I brought home so much food – non-perishable food for weeks.”
He does not want to stop collecting, as recycling and environmental protection are important to him
Will he stop now? No, Gordon already explained to the Australian magazine that he does not want to stop collecting. On one hand, he now has to pay the mortgage on his new house. On the other hand, he has a very positive attitude towards recycling, which is why he wants to continue as well. Gordon attributes his attitude towards recycling to his upbringing:
The real beginning was when I went to the dump with my mother as a child to retrieve my school shoes, and then I found a few treasures in a municipal collection point over the years. I furnished half my house with items from city collection bins, I just make sure to clean them first (…) It’s part of my nature, I can’t stop now – recycling and environmental protection are part of my being.
Rod Shields is now a multimillionaire. Yet his journey began with buying a license plate. Shields explains in an interview that the license plate marked the beginning of his great success: A man bought a license plate for his car for 143 euros: It was the beginning of his success that made him a millionaire
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