For seven years, an Australian man cleaned the streets and walked the festival aisles looking for cans and bottles. By recycling them, he earned over €41,000 and bought himself a house. Here’s his story.
Recycling is good. At least, that’s what Australian Damian Gordon wanted to show. For seven years, this man from Australia’s Central Coast has been collecting cans and bottles for recycling. In all, he has collected more than 450,000 of them. A relentless fight that he has waged alone, but with great motivation, since 2017, as relayed by the Australian media ABC News. Thanks to recycling, he has obtained more than €41,000 and, with this sum, he has been able to buy a house. Here’s how
When he’s not scouring the streets for rubbish, Damian Gordon has a full-time job to save money. But he’s found a better place than the pavements to recycle, and he’s discovered volunteering as the spearhead of his adventure.
Festival volunteer
In Australia, there are a lot of music festivals. More than 500 a year. So, with a passion for music, Damian Gordon decided to become a festival volunteer. “I wanted to get involved in music festival culture and that’s what drove me. I’ve met so many famous people, just by cleaning the front of the stage”, he explained to the Australian audiovisual programme “The Project”.
During these long working days, he takes the opportunity to collect thousands of recyclable containers. But that’s not all. Festivals are notorious for featuring music stars who lack for nothing. So they often forget a few things. Over the years, Damian Gordon has started to collect camping equipment, fairy lights and cowboy hats.
Disposable society
After seven years, the 36-year-old Australian has put more than 450,000 cans and bottles into NSW Return and Earn container deposit systems. This type of machine refunds each container at the price of 10 cents. In total, he ended up with 46,000 dollars, or more than 41,000 euros.
Fascinated by the news, some Internet users had fun calculating his hourly earnings. And the verdict was in: he earned 18 dollars a day and 126 dollars a week. With all this money, Damian Gordon put a deposit on a house, a small fisherman’s hut with two bedrooms. Although it enabled him to find a roof over his head, the experience warned him of a sad reality.
“There’s so much waste at the moment, we live in a throwaway society. Some of these events, like weddings and music festivals, produce so much waste…” he tells ABC News. Once, at a festival, the Australian brought back a huge quantity of food that had been left to rot. He had weeks’ worth of non-perishable food. So Damian Gordon is careful. He is now furnishing his new property with recycled furniture. And to pay off his loan, the new owner will continue to scour the streets and concert aisles for lost cans.
This story is so inspiring! It’s amazing how one person’s effort can lead to such a positive impact. Recycling is not just about the environment, but also about community and creativity. I love how he turned those cans into a home!
This story is so inspiring! It’s amazing how one person’s effort in recycling can lead to something so impactful like buying a house. We need more people like him!
This is a true story: I started August 12, 1988. With income from recycling and any found money, I bought sovereigns. Mostly roadsides in northern California, plus New Mexico, now Vancouver Island. Best individual item found: near the north end of the Silverado Trail in California, I found a 1964 silver Canadian Charlottetown silver dollar in the dirt. Currently working on acquiring the 50th sovereign. My coffee container currently has about $915 CAD in it. Damian Gordon, good on yer!