Murray Keys collects bottles to fundraise for sustainable housing

A retired Qld forestry worker has become a familiar and welcome figure in his community as he spends hours every week, walking the streets and collecting recyclable rubbish for important causes.

Retired forestry worker Murray Keys never thought his barefoot night runs would end up with him combing the streets of his regional Qld neighbourhood for bottles, cans and plastic in an effort to raise $78,000 for a social housing energy efficiency project.

Dressed in his “uniform” of a floppy full rim beige hat and a matching long-sleeve safari shirt and shorts, Mr Keys walks up and down the streets of the Southside, shouting out many friendly hellos and getting just as many back, hunting for bottles, cans and plastics.

His trusty companion is a grabber on a stick which allows him to pick up bottles from the ground with ease.

His objective is twofold: to reduce landfill and put another 10 cents towards making houses more energy efficient and reduce their greenhouse emissions – particularly for low-income earners.

It all started 15 years ago when Mr Keys’ nightly barefoot runs made him notice all the broken glass on the footpath.

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Murray Keys is a Southside resident who is collecting bottles and fundraising for energy efficiency in social housing. June 26, 2023 Picture: Christine Schindler

“So I started picking up broken glass and putting it in the bins, until eventually I thought I should just pick up all the rubbish,” Mr Keys said.

That led him to noticing how full the public bins were.

“Every time I lifted the lid, there were more bottles,” he said.

Murray Keys is a Southside resident who is collecting bottles and fundraising for energy efficiency in social housing. June 26, 2023 Picture: Christine Schindler

With the encouragement of his son, he signed up to Containers for Change and started donating the proceeds of his collections to the Gympie and District Sustainability Alliance, a community organisation that supports communities and individuals looking to be more energy efficient.

Mr Keys admitted he had since traded his bare feet for his “uniform”, and his jogs for walking around the neighbourhood with bags of empty bottles.

The neighbours have embraced his routine and regularly leave out green bags full of empty cans and bottles for him to collect.

Murray Keys is a Southside resident who is collecting bottles and fundraising for energy efficiency in social housing. June 26, 2023 Picture: Christine Schindler

Now, Mr Keys is setting his ambitions high: to raise $78,000 to install better insulation, ventilation, hot water, and air conditioning systems in two social houses owned by housing and welfare organisation Community Action Inc.

The simple and practical measures would provide long-term benefits to residents and house owners, decreasing their energy consumption, electricity bills, and greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

A simple act for a much larger problem, Mr Keys recognises his $1600/year of bottle earnings may not change the world but it will reduce landfill, combat climate change, and the money can go back to the community.

“So I do my little bit as much as I can. It’s only 10 cents, but there’s millions of them, that’s a lot of money,” he said.