Collecting empty bottles and cans is becoming more than just a way to keep Fiji clean, with the Return & Earn initiative creating new income opportunities for families and individuals across the country.

From community groups to small-scale collectors, more people are turning recyclable containers into a source of revenue while helping reduce waste in their neighbourhoods.

Return & Earn Fiji Representative Dwain Qalovaki highlighted that many people are now treating bottle collection as a source of income.

“We’re already seeing it in different municipalities around the country where members of the public are utilising this as a source of revenue, they’re doing it as a small business for themselves, they’re also doing it as their community projects. So, it’s a win-win on so many different fronts” Qalovaki highlighted. 

The programme is also creating employment beyond the community level, with municipal councils recruiting staff to operate collection centres as the initiative continues to expand.

He said many regular collectors are now earning significantly more than when the programme first began.

“We’re seeing in the early days of Return and Earn Fiji that the new green jobs that are coming out of it are not just at community level where people are actively choosing to now collect and do it industriously where in the beginning the first few months, we might have seen them come in and earn about $40, $60, $70”. 

“These people are now earning anywhere between $300 to $600 to $700 every time they return all their bottles because they’re doing it industriously” he said. 

BY: JOELI RAGONELIWA