The founder of grassroots organisation Lids4Kids is calling for a permanent home for the facility in the ACT – a one-stop recycling drop-off centre for Canberrans.

Lids4Kids currently operates out of founder Tim Miller’s garage. He says the organisations needs a home, and the community needs a facility where plastics and other items like batteries or printer cartridges can be dropped off, sorted by volunteers, and then sent on to be recycled or reused by relevant charities or organisations.

Tim has started a petition calling on the next ACT Government to help the organisation find a facility, either through the donation of a space or grants that could cover rent of a facility, after unsuccessfully trying to secure a space for Lids4Kids in empty commercial shopfronts: “we just haven’t been able to get a benevolent building owner [to donate the space]”.

“Because we host weekly workshops with different community groups with Scouts and retirement villages and special needs families, we want to have a location where people can come and help us sort the lids, but also, more importantly, learn about recycling and what is recyclable, what isn’t,” he said.

Lids4Kids runs workshops and works with groups such as schools and community groups as well as stroke survivors and people with dementia, autism and ADHD to sort the donated lids. Many participants have reported the benefits of participating in a “simple but meaningful” process to keep plastic from landfill.

Tim started Lids4Kids in May 2019 to collect plastic tops which were sent to Envision Hands to recycle them into mobility aids for children. Since then, Lids4Kids has spread across the country and Envision has been provided with millions of lids.

The lids are now sent to PlasLink ACT, an initiative from the ANU where engineering students work to turn plastic waste into new products, and Tim has plans to use recycled lids as part of science programs in schools and as public art projects.