By Jasmine Hines and Adam Stephen
Selwyn Nutley with his beloved rescue dog Mindy. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
In short:
The 82-year-old from Emerald has alone raised more than $100,000 by collecting and cashing in recyclable cans and bottles.
Containers for Change chief executive Natalie Roach says "Nuts" is one of the state's top recyclers.
What's next?
Mr Nutley says he will continue recycling up to 6,000 containers a week until he gets old.
Selwyn "Nuts" Nutley is affectionately known as the "patron of pets" in his small rural town.
With his custom-designed collections ute he has recycled more than a million cans and bottles to raise funds for his local pet rescue group.
The 82-year-old retiree from Emerald, in Queensland's Central Highlands, has single-handedly raised more than $100,000.
"I have plenty of spare time," Mr Nutley says.
"I drive around in my ute, which has got a tailgate lifter on it, and I collect from pubs, clubs and houses all around Emerald.
"A lot of people even throw them over my front fence."
The octogenarian recycles up to 6,000 containers a week, thanks to a retrofitted ute that allows him to easily lift and transport 12 full wheelie bins.
Rescue dog Mindy is one of four of Mr Nutley's spoilt pooches. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
Mr Nutley started his fundraising efforts after adopting his first rescue dog in 2014 and soon his brood expanded.
He now has four small dogs: Mindy, Lindy, Rover and Buddy.
"I love all dogs, big, small. They all just seem to come to me," he says.
He fundraises through Queensland's Containers for Change scheme, which refunds 10 cents for each eligible drink container.
Mr Nutley retrofitted his ute to make it easier to recycle more containers. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
'He could outrun me'
Susan Consedine, treasurer of CQ Pet Rescue, met Mr Nutley 10 years ago when he offered to help after adopting his first dog.
"He just took that ball and ran with it. We just got out of Selwyn's way," she says.
Mr Nutley began fundraising for the rescue group after adopting his own dogs. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
He began by attending markets, washing dogs and even driving animals more than 800 kilometres to Brisbane, where there is a greater pool of rescue groups and foster carers.
"Selwyn would, in his younger years of his late 70s, load the animals up with me at three in the morning and he would drive them there and then back," Ms Consedine says.
"[He's] an absolute powerhouse. He could outrun me and I'm a fairly active person."
Ms Consedine says without Mr Nutley the rescue service would have shut during the COVID-19 pandemic when the charity's main fundraising avenue was events.
"The only fundraising scheme that we had was Selwyn and the recycling program … he basically kept us going for two years," she says.
"If we had collapsed … there would have been an untold number of animals that would have been euthanased that did not need to be."
Mr Nutley collects about 6,000 containers a week for his local animal rescue group. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
Containers for Change chief executive Natalie Roach says "Nuts" is one of the state's top recyclers.
"He's spending an average 45 hours a week collecting and recycling containers, so that's more than the average full-time job in terms of hours," she said.
Mr Nutley also collects plastic bottle top lids which his local rotary sends away to make prosthetic limbs. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)
Ms Roach says since the scheme launched in 2018, 8.8 billion containers have been recycled.
Asked what's next, Mr Nutley says he will continue recycling up to 6,000 containers a week until he gets "old".
CQ Pet Rescue covers 52,000 square kilometres in the Central Highlands and only takes animals on a council list to be put down.
Full Article & Source:
Containers for Change helps retiree cash in a million empties for animal rescue charity
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