Containers make real change for charity

Biggenden's Peter Coote is using a recycling scheme to raise money for research into motor neurone disease.

Peter Coote recycles at Biggenden to raise money for research into motor neurone disease. Picture: Erica Murree

IT'S BEEN years since Peter Coote lost one of his friends to motor neurone disease but he hasn't shaken the pain of watching them gradually weaken and succumb to the disease.

Mr Coote hopes that one day nobody will have to suffer from the disease and he is using the Containers for Change scheme to help achieve that goal.

He collects recycling from the Biggenden Caravan Park and drops it at the mobile refund point at the Grand Hotel.

"Watching my friend die from motor neurone disease was really terrible,” he said.

"I just wanted to make some money for research.”

So far Mr Coote has cashed in three loads of recycling, worth hundreds of dollars, for the research arm of Motor Neurone Disease Australia.

He said he already had plenty of recycling to work with, but if anyone was interesting in recycling for a charity, they could list their chosen organisation's scheme ID on the bag when they dropped it off.

Mr Coote is also responsible for the teddy bears that line the caravan park's fence, which he puts there in support of sufferers.

"I just wanted to make people smile and laugh,” he said.