Recycling to convert books to braille

Rutherford’s George Brennan has raised more than $19,000 in just over two years to convert books into braille for children and adults with low vision.

The scale of his collections has grown rapidly, and George said his last load of containers set a new record for him—10,940 containers netted $1094 for Braille House in one go. He took the empty bottles and cans to the Maitland Return and Earn depot, which opened in June 2024 and is equiped for bulk returns. Luckily, he has a mate to give him a hand with the heavy lifting.

When George first heard about Braille House—a national charity with a lending library for children and adults with low vision—he was already collecting containers for Return and Earn. Initially though he had used the refunds to buy essentials for the infants in his large family.

“I’ve got six children—four girls, two boys—and 12 grandchildren. When I was first collecting the bottles and cans, I was buying nappies, lotions and those things, so when the kids brought the grandkids to visit we had things ready for the babies,” George explained.

But after he saw a news story on Braille House, George decided redirect his Return and Earn refunds there. Even though George doesn’t personally have any vision impaired friends or family, this struck him as an important initiative to support.

“They needed people to raise money so they could transcribe books into braille. When they put braille over the text, mums and dads can read to their vision impaired kids, while the kids feel the braille,” he said. “I thought, wow! I figured we can afford to buy the baby needs ourselves, and send the money from Return and Earn to Braille House.”

George started with just one wheelie bin to collect containers, but now has 52 bins. He leaves them with friends and supporters around his local area, so they—and their friends and neighbours—can donate empty bottles and cans. He also leaves bins in industrial locations for tradies to leave their drink containers. When George picks up a full bin, he replaces it with an empty one.

Many of his bins have been donated, or have come to him damaged. “People gave their broken bins to fix and, after I fixed them, I painted the tops pink and blue and added the Braille House logo,” George said. “I put a hole in the lid so it’s easy for containers to be dropped in, and hole in the bottom so if the bins are left outside, rain just drains through.”

“This is all made possible by the people who donate their containers,” George said. “When the containers go in the bin, the 10c goes straight to Braille House—I bear the costs of the fuel and the equipment.”

He added that while he’s not sure what the future holds, he has no plans to stop anytime soon. “People ask, ‘How long will you do this?’ And I say, ‘I don’t have an exit plan yet’.”