Australian man Damian Gordon, 36, saved over €25,000 through a bottle deposit return scheme to fund his house deposit
03:00, 09 May 2026Updated 18:22, 09 May 2026
The Australian Return and Earn scheme is similar to Ireland’s recently launched Re-Turn initiative
A resourceful recycler has revealed how he managed to buy his own home using funds he accumulated through a bottle and can deposit scheme.
Damian Gordon turned his dream of homeownership into a reality by setting aside over €25,000 earned from recycling used drinks containers. The 36-year-old Australian managed to amass the impressive sum over seven years, after witnessing the earning potential of recycling while volunteering at a music festival over a decade ago.
The environmentally-minded healthcare worker initially began tidying up a local beach that he noticed was littered with rubbish during his daily walks. He told That’s Life : “It was impossible to ignore all the rubbish left behind by other beach-goers. Plastic bottles and cans – even fishing gear – were scattered across the shoreline.
“‘I can’t leave it like this,’ I decided. Returning to the beach as often as I could, I made it my mission to collect the rubbish during my walk. By the time I’d strolled from one end to the other, my backpack was overflowing.”
Damian began looking into the devastating impact pollution was having on our oceans, and was alarmed to discover the harm it was causing to marine wildlife. He subsequently began volunteering at Clean Up Australia events throughout the year.
In 2014, the passionate musician helped establish a music festival, and it was there that he first grasped just how lucrative his recycling endeavours could be. He said: “By the end of our event in 2017, the team had collected around 40,000 bottles and cans.
“After separating them into aluminium, plastic and glass, I piled what I could fit into the back of my car, and drove them to the local recycling plant. Receiving a 10 cent refund per item, I was amazed to walk away with a whopping $4000 (€2,278) for our recycling efforts. Not bad for one event, I thought, chuffed.”
Damian then hatched a “wild idea” that he would fund his house deposit entirely through recycling. With music festivals thin on the ground to volunteer at, he started casting his net wider to other events.
“With news of my side gig spreading around town, people began contacting me with their upcoming events,” he said. “‘I’m getting married in the park. Would you like to tackle the recycling for us?’ one woman asked. “‘It’s my daughter’s birthday down at the beach at the weekend,’ said another. Before I knew it, my weekends were booked out. I even had locals collecting bottles and donating them to me.”
Australia launched the Return and Earn scheme in 2017. The initiative, which is similar to Ireland’s Re-Turn scheme, made the whole process far more straightforward for Damian, who made monthly trips to the container deposits, pocketing up to €227 per visit. He also set up a dedicated savings account specifically for his recycling earnings.
“Within three years I’d saved $20,000 (€11,389),” he said. “It spurred me on to keep going. For the next five years, whenever I clocked off work, I’d go around the area picking up discarded bottles and cans. And on weekends, I’d cash in my collection at the local depot.”
In January 2025, he reached $45,000 (€25,627) and successfully put down a deposit on a two-bedroom property. He said: “I can’t believe I’ve bought a house with rubbish.”
His penny-pinching approach has also extended to kitting out his home, salvaging a fridge, microwave, juicer and bed frame from items that had been thrown away. He added: “With mortgage repayments coming hard and fast, I don’t plan to stop collecting any time soon. Now I’m paying off my dream home, one bottle at a time.”
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