Recycling revolution: Community effort supports children’s charity

LOCAL retiree Mark Gingell is turning empty bottles into hope for disadvantaged children across the country.

With the help of Searoad Ferries, in mid-November last year, Mr Gingell began collecting recyclables compatible with the state’s container deposit scheme (CDS) from ferry patrons, cashing them in at nearby collection points to raise funds for children’s charity Cottage by the Sea.

To facilitate the initiative, Searoad Ferries encourages it patrons to dispose of their empty bottles and cans into dedicated bins while onboard, which are then collected by Mr Gingell each week for processing by TOMRA Cleanaway, the local operator of Victoria’s CDS scheme.

“[Searoad Ferries have] gone out of their way to set [this up]. It took a little bit of thinking and planning and doing, but now it’s up and running,” he said.

Mr Gingell spends up to seven hours a week collecting and depositing the cans donated by Searoad Ferries and said the initiative has already inspired others in the community to donate their recyclables to the cause.

“It’s really raising the awareness of recycling, it’s raising the profile of Cottage by the Sea and it’s raising some money for Cottage by the Sea,” Mr Gingell said.

He’s hoping it will be possible to raise $10,000 for Cottage within 12 months.

Cottage chief executive Adam Wake said there were about 216,000 children in Victoria alone living in abject poverty.

“That’s an awful statistic and it is growing,” he said.

 

“We’re seeing an increase in neurodiversity, definite challenges at home, an increase everywhere, and it’s a real worry, so we’re doing everything we can to reach as many as we possibly can.”

For the charity, which receives no government funding, it costs about $200 to support a child over a 24-hour period to access its programs, the benefits of which have been the focus of two impact studies conducted by researchers at Deakin University.

The most recent report, released in July last year, found not only immediate short-term improvements in the confidence, sense of belonging and self-belief of the children who experience Cottage’s programs, but that these impacts – as well as the memories made – are carried through life.

“We know what we do works,” Mr Wake said.

“It’s not cheap to change these children’s lives in the way that we do. I believe, hand on heart, we are offering the best program anywhere in the country for this contingent of kids.”

As a result, he said partnerships like the one the charity has now formed with Mr Gingell and Searoad Ferries are “worth their weight in gold”.

“It’s still a developing success story,” Mr Wake said.

“Recycling is something we, on a worldwide level, need to continue to champion…but we do not have the resources to be able to manage these kinds of relationships and pay for them.

“We’re a big charity now, managed by relatively few staff, so having Mark managing this relationship with a fantastic organisation like Searoad, I cannot speak more highly of it.

“We need more corporate partnerships like this in myriad ways.”