Griffith Return and Earn celebrates grand opening

The Griffith community came together today to celebrate the official opening of the new Griffith Return and Earn depot located on Lenehan Road.

Over 35 community leaders attended the gala opening including Griffith City Council Mayor Clr Doug Curran and local St Vincent de Paul NSW representatives Phil Coyte Executive Director Commercial Enterprise, Retail & Fundraising, Peter Burgess President Wagga Wagga Central Council, and Mitchell Saddler Director Commercial Enterprise.

Return and Earn network operator TOMRA Cleanaway has partnered with St Vincent de Paul Society NSW to operate the new large-format Griffith Return and Earn depot. While it is the first return point of its kind in Griffith, it’ll be Vinnies’ 9th Return and Earn depot in NSW.

St Vincent de Paul Society has been involved with Return and Earn since the scheme launched six years ago, priding itself on providing easy and convenient access for the community to return their eligible bottles and cans for the 10c refund.

The partnership with Return and Earn provides Vinnies with an important revenue stream, which supports the Society’s programs and services that help people experiencing poverty and disadvantage.

Once open, the bulk-processing facility is designed to quickly process high volumes of drink containers and to support community fundraising by local not-for-profit groups and charities.

The Griffith community are already keen recyclers, having returned more than 65 million containers through local return points since the scheme commenced. The new depot will be the third return point in the area.

Griffith Return and Earn is located at Lenehan Road, Griffith. Opening hours are 8:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays.

More than 11.3 billion drink containers have been returned for recycling through Return and Earn’s network of 620+ return points across NSW since the scheme launched in 2017.

For more information visit: www.returnandearn.org.au 

Quotes attributable to James Dorney, CEO TOMRA Cleanaway, network operator for Return and Earn

“The Griffith community are already enthusiastic participants in Return and Earn, having returned over 65 million containers through local return points since the scheme launched six years ago.”

“We’re delighted to again partner with the amazing Vinnies team to provide the people of Griffith and surrounds with this convenient new location to recycle your eligible bottles and cans and help your local environment.”

“Return and Earn’s automated depots are an important part of the return point network, and enable not-for-profits like St Vincent de Paul to put more money back into the local community with every recycled container, all while helping the environment and providing local jobs.”

Quotes attributable to Yolanda Saiz, CEO, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW

“Just last financial year we did 109 million containers through our sites, and since the inception of the scheme, we’ve actually had almost a half a billion containers go through our sites. So that has actually over that time generated millions of dollars of benefit to Vinnies in New South Wales.”

“Those funds are going straight back into helping us provide care and assistance to people doing it tough, to help with household bills, with food, with rent, and it also goes into supporting our services.”

“It’s a wonderful initiative … we’ve seen lots of individuals that are actually telling us that it’s giving them that little bit of extra cash at this time when things are so tight for so many Australians.”