What would you do with your empty plastic bottles and cans? Throw them in the bin? Sort them in their respected recycling piles? Or maybe, just maybe, you’d collect them in their thousands and use them to fund your dream wedding on a South Pacific island.
That’s what this ambitious couple has decided to do, anyway.
Leonie Starr and her fiancé Matthew Porter, a 29-year-old couple from Queensland, Australia, have pledged to recycle a staggering 800,000 used bottles and cans in order to pay for their dream wedding on Vanuatu island, the place where they got engaged.
The idea came after the pair were quoted a hefty £81,000 to marry in front of all their family and friends on the idyllic beach location, around the exact same time Queensland launched its recycled container scheme – in which 10 cents is refunded for every eligible container that is recycled.
Speaking to local ABC News, Starr said:
I have been waiting for the scheme to come to Queensland for about a year. When it launched, we went about three or four times before we started realising that this could pay for the wedding. Once I did the calculations I thought we could give it a go.
And give it a go they have.
So far, the couple have managed to collect over 50,000 bottles to fund their wedding, recycling an average of 10,000 bottles a month. It’s slightly short of their 810,000-bottle goal, but they’ve got until March 2020 to get that number up.
‘I’m averaging about 10,000 per month so far,’ Starr told the MailOnline. ‘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.’
All their planet-saving work isn’t going unnoticed, either. The couple have also received a donation of $1,000 from their local TOMRA Recycling Centre, which the couple have put towards flowers and decorations.
It’s an ambitious mission and by no means an easy task, but we’re all about saving the planet and wish the couple the best of luck in their environmental endeavour. All together now: 99 bottles of beer in the bag…
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