Dee Garrett was not surprised she got such a great response to the Lids4Kids project.
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Dee knew the residents of the Milton and Ulladulla districts would always be prepared to help children, while doing something for the environment.
The idea for Lids4Kids idea came from Envision Hands, a non-for-profit organisation based at Wheelers Hill in Victoria, which shreds low and high density (numbers 2 and 4) bottle lids and turns them into new prosthetic limbs using 3D printing.
The prosthetic limbs are distributed to the victims of landmines in countries that lack the medical and technical facilities to enable the youngest victims of conflict to have a second chance.
Dee was quick to throw her support behind the project and the community joined in.
"I learnt about Lids4Kids from a mum at the preschool where I work and decided to throw my support behind it after taking a very interesting and informative Shoalhaven Council tip tour in Nowra," she said.
"On this tour, I learnt that the council were actually recommending residents remove their bottle lids and put them into the red landfill bin, even though they are a recyclable material.
"This stuck in my mind as being such an awful waste.
"At recycling depots, the lids, because of their small size were either falling off the conveyor belt and ending up on the ground or getting stuck and jamming the machinery during the sorting process either way, all ending up in landfill."
She knew the support for Lids4Kids would take off in Ulladulla and Milton area.
"We have such a tight and caring community here in the Milton Ulladulla area, caring for others in need as well acting as guardians to our beautiful ocean, beaches, waterways and bushland," she said.
"This is why we are all here isn't it and why people love to visit our special area, so we need to look after it."
Dee also believes we all should do our bit to help reduce waste.
"I am passionate about doing as much as my family can reduce landfill and protect our animals and the environment as well as helping others in our community discover and adopt ways they too can make a difference to our environment," she said.
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Dee coordinates a catchment area from Huskisson down to South Durras.
Not only did community members quickly support the proposal but local businesses did as well.
"When we first started collecting lids, it only took a week or so before I had 25 generous businesses putting up their hands to be public collection points and we were collecting thousands of lids in no time," she said.
"Once the word spread, people were keen to be recycling and saving lids from landfill as well as helping people, mainly children around the world who were needing mobility aids to make their everyday lives easier.
"I hear many comments about how amazing technology is these days to be able to turn 500 milk lids into a hand by way of a 3D printer which is incredible."
Dee said "our amazing community alone" had collected, washed, sorted and counted over 50 000 plastic lids.
"There is no way I could do this by myself," she said.
"We have mustered up a terrific team of helpers.
"The guys at Mallala Nursery have been an enormous help as have a terrific group of very generous individuals who put up their hands to collect tubs of lids from me, take them home to sort, wash, separate into colours."
The local lids are currently in storage locally, thanks to another very generous member of our community offering some space until the lids are needed for further processing.
The national lid tally stands at 3 153 200 lids and growing.
The project is an ongoing one.
"We are always thinking about new ideas for using the 3D filament created from the lids so we will always be collecting," Dee said.
"So if you think you have a great idea we would love to hear it.
"In the meantime, keep collecting your milk, water, soft drink and tetra pak lids (#2 and #4 type plastic)."
She says it will be an enormous help if lids could be washed and the white foam circle removed from milk lids before drop off.
After such an incredible response nationwide Tim, the founder of Lids4Kids is now looking at different uses for the lids as well as more like minded plastics recycling centres to work with so they can continue to repurpose this abundant plastic resource.
For more information on Lids4Kids in this area go to facebook Lids4Kids-Illawarra and South Coast click here
The end goal is to be plastic free.
"Why are we continuing to make new plastic when we have so much plastic just being thrown away? More manufacturers, if they need to use plastic should be open to using recycled plastic," Dee said.
"Our mindset has to change - we have to think about recycling, repurposing, reusing and reducing - not just new and more.
"Reuse what we already have -.our planet is drowning in plastic."
Dee would like to see the huge beverage companies fund the cost of the machinery needed to process and re-purpose these lids.
"They should take some responsibility to make sure their products do not end up in landfills and set a trend in recycling," she said.
