Community
20 January, 2025
Bruce keeps on giving
PORT Douglas rubbish collector Bruce Furguson has raised $10,000 for the Port Douglas Neighbourhood Centre.
This substantial amount has been achieved over the last 12 months by collecting empty cans and bottles for recycling.
Not only is it an amazing triumph considering he is in his eighth decade age wise, but it is also the second time he has raised this amount in the last year.
Apart from the benefits of recycling to our environment, each empty container returns 10 cents, so $10,000 equates to 100,000 collected items.
Mr Furguson thought of the idea in 2022 at the Port Douglas Community Service Network, where he is a volunteer for the neighbourhood centre.
“My inspiration came at the group’s Christmas party a year ago,” Mr Furguson said.
“I was alarmed by the number of empty cans and bottles that may ultimately end up in general rubbish,” he said.
Seeing the opportunity to turn this into useful coin, he embarked on this impressive challenge.
Most of Mr Furguson’s bin searching has been carried out at local resorts where they are happy for him to carry out the arduous task at their location.
His four-to-five hours a day effort, plus the generally high number of visitors to the resorts, guaranteed a large number of desired empties and ultimately lots of cents in return.
Mr Furguson has been part of the Douglas Shire community for many years, originally owning 20ha of land at Craiglie which he leased to a cane farmer. Nowadays, that area is home to many local residents.
How the money raised gets used has been left up to the Port Douglas Neighbourhood Centre, but in the past it has assisted with upgrades to the premises.
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