Six years ago, the idea behind Recycled AF was simple. Walk through almost any town and you'll see people collecting cans and bottles — not as a hobby, but to make ends meet. For some it's a bit of extra cash. For others, it's how they get through the week.
At the same time, the waste was staggering. Thousands of cans, bottles and containers go straight to landfill every day — from households and commercial venues alike — even though they're recyclable and worth real money under the deposit scheme. Binned out of habit, because the depot is a hassle.
They were already doing the work. What they didn't have was a system: a steady supply of containers, a way to be found, and a fair cut for their effort. Meanwhile households were sitting on bags of empties with nowhere convenient to take them.
Recycled AF connects the two. Residents request a pickup from their door. Local collectors accept the jobs that suit them, drop the containers at a depot, and keep 100% of every deposit. The container deposit scheme already pays out — we just make sure that money reaches the person who earned it, on their own schedule.
Your empties become someone’s living.
That's the whole point. It's about changing the mindset — that an empty isn't rubbish, it's worth something to someone. Every container that gets picked up instead of binned is money in a local person's pocket and one less in landfill. Good for people, good for the planet.