A Recycled Wedding/FacebookThe couple want to raise enough money to hire a private island for their big day
A thrifty couple from Australia are relying on recycled waste to fund their dream wedding.
Leonie Starr and Matthew Porter, from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast decided to recycle plastic bottles for money.
Making just 10c per can that they recycle, the 29-year-old’s original idea has seen them work tirelessly to collect the cans – which so far has amounted to $6,000.
Averaging around 10,000 cans per month – the couple have collected a whopping 51,455 cans from highways and main roads so far.
Hoping to hear the sound of wedding bells ring in Vanuatu next year, the couples goal is to recycle a mammoth 810,000 bottles and cans in total – which would leave them with a staggering $81,000 to spend on the big day.
This is what 608 bottles/ cans looks like on my grass!UPDATE : 4382 collected so far ♻️💚🤙🏼
Posted by A recycled Wedding on Saturday, 1 December 2018
*Quits job and flies to Australia to collect cans*
The couple have be collecting cans for just over five months – and came up with the quirky solution after a 10c container deposit scheme was announced for Queensland in November last year.
Talking with MailOnline, Leonie said:
The best place to collect bottles is definitely the sides of highways and main roads.
For me to reach my huge goal of 810,000 bottles I would need to be taking home 2,200 bottles a day. I’m averaging about 10,000 per month so far.
Since hitting 50,000 bottles and having the wedding now paid for entirely out of 10c containers, my main goal is to get as close to 810,000 as I can.
On days off, I might spend maybe three to four hours collecting and do one or two drop offs in one day.
With the dream of hiring their own private island for the wedding, the couple have got a hell of a lot more cans left to collect.
In total, paying for the island for 35 people to spend six nights on – with catering included – and the wedding itself, will cost the full sum of their ambitious $81,000 goal.
Happy Easter everybody 🐰Eddy is the manager of the The Chopping Block Cafe in Buderim 🍴 This afternoon he surprised…
Posted by A recycled Wedding on Thursday, 18 April 2019
Leonie continued:
Including the actual wedding which is $5,000, it came to $81,000. My partner nearly fell off the couch.
I keep thinking about how exciting it’s going to be boarding the plane with all of our guests on the same flight heading over to Vanuatu to celebrate our lives together.
I’m way off hitting that goal in a year, and it would have been a more realistic goal to aim for 100,000, but it’s been so fun trying and it gets me out of the house, socialising and exercising.
Setting up a Facebook page to document the couple’s wedding goal – some caring people from around the globe even send their empty bottles and cans onto the loved up couple to help them achieve their goal.
Posted by A recycled Wedding on Tuesday, 7 May 2019
The TOMRA Recycling Centre in Queensland also donated $1,000 to the pair, which the couple have said will be spent on flowers and decorations.
Although their goal is ambitious, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned – or at least a woman whose dreams for her big day are bigger than that of her bank balance.
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