Sue Fallon is a passionate advocate for wildlife who has volunteered at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra for more than 11 years.
When the ACT Container Deposit Scheme launched in 2018, Sue immediately helped arrange for the zoo to establish collection bins for recyclable containers. The recycling initiative went from strength to strength, with all the funds raised going to support animal charities.
“Our current total of beverage containers recycled is nearing 190,000,” says Sue. And at 10c per container, that’s an amazing $19,000 raised.
Although the zoo was recently closed due to COVID -19 for visitors, animals still needed to be cared for and Sue continued volunteering, working with the sun bears, red pandas, siamangs, cotton-top tamarinds and meerkats.
Sue Fallon says that when the zoo was temporarily closed to visitors, container collections slowed down, but she has still found ways to continue fundraising.
“Fortunately I have a number of collectors external to the zoo who have kept collecting for me and are very supportive of animal welfare causes, so I was able to maintain a steady number of items coming in,” says Sue.
Returning the collected containers at the Mitchell cash-back depot Sue stated, “I was very impressed by the social distancing measures implemented at the depot at Mitchell and the manner in which they were enforced”.
Funds raised from containers returned will support the African Otter Network.
Interested in fundraising through the ACT CDS? Find out more on our Fundraising page.
The ACT CDS is a partnership between the ACT Government, scheme coordinator Exchange for Change and network operator Return-It.
