Michael and Margaret will be representing the Club at the Awards night on November 7 at the Sofitel, Brisbane.
Report in Kenmore News:
Kenmore Rotary who obtained a Containers for Change Scheme ID when the scheme began in November 2018, has been nominated for a “Change Maker Award Charity/Community Group.” KRC was an early adopter in the movement to recycle plastic containers and the program, run by the members of the club, has evolved into a wide array of collection points across Kenmore through to Moggill.
Our members Michael Fitzgerald and Ken Ryan have used their combined career knowledge to take the project to the next level since COVID put everything on hold.
“Initially, we had two very large cages manufactured that were placed at E-Waste in Kenmore Hills and Pullenvale Marketplace,” says former Town Planner, Ken Ryan.
Local State MP Christian Rowan played a role in helping us apply for a grant from the Department of the Environment. The grant application was successful and a trailer was purchased that enabled club members, some 30-strong volunteers, to run a roster emptying the cages and delivering the containers to a Coex depot where they were turned into a cash donation to the club.
With the scheme increasing to include wine and spirit bottles, the wider network became difficult for members to keep up with, and so Ken and Michael started to have conversations with Community Co Recycling Pty Ltd (the Coex operator the Club has been working with in relation to collections for several years). This led to the Club booking them to pick up from the various sites, freeing Kenmore Rotary members up to focus on other ways to raise revenue and support the range of local good causes as well as school children in PNG.
The project to date has stopped 537,085 containers being added to landfill and raised $153,708.50 distributed between Kenmore Rotary good causes and partners.
