Page 2641 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 August 2019
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who worked alongside Austin for many years, shared that it is “hard to believe that I can no longer just pick up the phone and give him a call to sound him out for his perspectives on issues with which we have been engaged over the years”. This shows just how engaged Austin was in the community, how committed he was to advocating for its best interests and how valued his advice had become.
As a member for Kurrajong, I have had the privilege of experiencing Austin’s passion and dedication in action. He was a committed member of the Old Narrabundah Community Council and a fierce advocate for his community and local heritage. He was one of the first people I met when campaigning at Narrabundah shops during the 2016 campaign. I am pretty sure the topic of the day was solar access, but it was not long before the local passion for old Narrabundah came to the fore.
Austin’s tireless advocacy for his community will be missed. I offer my condolences to his family and friends.
Waste—recycling
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (4.08): Continuing our theme of recycling and rubbish this week, as you know, Canberrans are some of the most enthusiastic recyclers in Australia and the ACT government proudly aims to make recycling as simple and as easy as possible. Unlike many other jurisdictions, in Canberra we recycle coffee cups and pizza boxes and we do not have to worry about rinsing our plastic bottles out before recycling. But there are still some items that we are not able to recycle in our yellow-lidded bins. People are often disappointed to learn that plastic bottle caps are not recyclable and that most end up in landfill.
One remarkable Canberran is changing that. Tim Miller and his family are responsible for the famous Aranda Street Library. Their street library is home to a wheelie bin where you can donate recyclable bottles and cans under our container deposit scheme. The money raised goes to the Holden Rally Team charity, aiding sick and disadvantaged kids. Through their fundraising efforts, Tim and his family found they had collected hundreds of lids which, as we know, cannot be recycled. And they did not know what to do with them. They knew they did not want them to end up in landfill but they needed to find someone who had a use for so many bottle caps.
Searching online, they discovered Envision Hands, a company in Victoria which turns the lids into prosthetic hands for children with a disability. As well as being a fantastic way to repurpose the lids, the company also provides jobs to disadvantaged people who create the 3D-printed prosthetics. With the help of his boys, Tim has created Lids4Kids. Lids4Kids collects plastic bottle caps and delivers them to Envision Hands. Just two days after creating a Facebook page, Lids4Kids had already signed up 11 collection points across Canberra.
Then it happened to go just a little viral! Today, just over six weeks later, Lids4Kids has more than 2,500 collection points spread across every state and territory in Australia. There are about 500 Lids4Kids collection points in the ACT. You can find your nearest one by going to the Holden Rally Team Lids4Kids Facebook page.
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