Lismore City Council has installed 20 public Return and Earn baskets across Lismore and Nimbin following a successful grant application.
The baskets are attached to popular public bins in the CBD, local parks and sporting fields, allowing any resident to collect and claim the containers to get more cash in their back pockets.
Director of Water, Waste and Open Spaces, Matt Potter said earlier in the year a review of kerbside bins found that around $670,000 of container refunds were being lost to waste.
“Now it will be easier for the community to both dispose of and access containers to be recycled at one of our Return and Earn deposit points.”
The baskets are funded by Exchange for Change, which coordinates the Return and Earn scheme.
Since the inception of Return and Earn in December 2017, Lismore residents have claimed more than 115 million containers with a value of $11.5 million. This equates to powering of 1,578 households for a year.
“Council is focused on their resource recovery capabilities, with the hope of an achieving eighty per cent recovery rate by 2032,” Mr Potter said.
“Return and Earn is not only a really positive asset for the community, but it also offers a solution to littering and contributes to positive environmental health.”
“We hope the community will be mindful of not placing other rubbish into the baskets so that containers are clean and accessible for the people wanting to make a claim. Coffee cups and takeaway food packaging should always go into the landfill bin.”
Return and Earn baskets can be found across the Lismore CBD, Hepburn Park in Goonellabah and on Cullen Street in Nimbin.
The program is introduced as a trial, with plans to expand in 2027 with more baskets across the CBD and Villages if the pilot phase is successful.
There are three locations across Lismore currently where residents can claim and recycle their containers:
– Lismore Recycling and Recovery Centre (for 100+ container bulk loads)
– Southern Cross University
– Woolworths Goonellabah
