Return and Earn champion Elijah Lonsdale has dived headfirst into publishing – starring as an illustrated character in the fourth Elijah and Crumpet book to raise awareness of Down syndrome and recycling.
The new book is called That Recycling Book and features an illustrated version of 16-year-old Elijah, a popular YouTuber with Down syndrome, showcasing the importance of recycling and how Return and Earn refunds funded the new book.
Dad Rob Lonsdale said the educational children’s book series followed their successful YouTube channel, Elijah and Crumpet, which began in 2018 to raise awareness of Down syndrome. They later published Motivate Man, then Super Scout and Best Book Forever.
They plan to use their Return and Earn refunds to give away over $50,000 worth of books – including a free copy of two of their books for every NSW public primary school.
“Our recycling really started from a desire to engage with people in the community. We started meeting a lot of people at the Return and Earn recycling machine,” explains Rob, who plays puppet monkey Crumpet in the YouTube videos.
“We handed out stickers and free Elijah and Crumpet books to the kids we met there.
“It grew from there. We now pick up containers from over 20 households and local businesses. The business owners greet Elijah and Elijah knows all of them too.
“It is really good for people with disability to be known and be seen in the community.
“So now we have a pick-up route we do each weekend and we are regulars at all these stops. We collect the containers and hand out books for their staff as well.”
Once a household or business donates 150 bottles or cans, they can receive an Elijah and Crumpet book. They can keep the book, share it with someone else or donate it back to Elijah and Crumpet for regifting.
“We’ve collected over 100,000 containers and we’re still going. We always put the shout out for people in the local area to donate their cans to us for our recycling project,” said Rob.
“We have a great system for returning the cans, using storage boxes which we stack up and clean afterwards. We get lots of comments about how fast we are at the machines.”
The Recycling Book, which includes information on Down syndrome for young readers, was published in October to time with Down Syndrome Awareness month.
“It’s pretty cool to be at book number four,” Rob said.
“Elijah’s the star and his name is on it. He has fun giving his book to kids we meet at the machine. It’s a real talking point and it makes a connection, which is really nice to see.”
- Visit the Elijah and Crumpet website: Elijah and Crumpet | Entertain. Educate. Inspire.
- Follow Elijah and Crumpet on social media: Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook
