Barooga resident helping recycle camping waste

Jan 18, 2020

During the Christmas-New Year holiday break, Barooga resident Steve Tomlinson was busy handing out recycling bags for campers in Cobram and Barooga.

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Mr Tomlinson has been taking the recycled containers to the return and earn station to raise funds for renovations at his martial arts school.

“The camping spots along the river only had general rubbish where everything was going to landfill,” Mr Tomlinson said.

“People I've spoken to are fairly conscious about recycling but there are no facilities to do so.”

Mr Tomlinson recalled one group of 80 people who had travelled from Melbourne to camp for 10 days across Christmas and the New Year.

“They had organised a 3 m by 3 m skip to be dropped off, so they had somewhere for their rubbish,” Mr Tomlinson said.

“They filled it three times over and from what I could see there was more than half that was recyclable.”

Mr Tomlinson started with handing out six bag but that quickly moved up to 20.

After posting about his activity on social media he has been inundated with calls and messages from people requesting bags.

“When each bag is full it holds about 500 containers,” Mr Tomlinson said.

“I think I'm going to need a bigger trailer, I'll definitely need a bigger trailer,” he said with a laugh.

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