“One thing that has really excited me is that we are seeing social benefits from the scheme as well as the environmental benefits,” says Smalley.

Since the scheme started in December 2017, more than $30 million has been returned to charities and community groups via donations and fees.

“As the community partner of the 2022 NSW Environmental Citizen of the Year Awards announced annually on World Environment Day, Return and Earn shares the nominees’ passion for effecting a positive change towards sustainability,” says Smalley.

The award is part of the NSW Australia Day Council’s annual NSW Local Citizen of the Year award program, in which NSW local councils nominate those leading in environmental initiatives in their communities.

This year’s nominees include a range of diverse projects and approaches but who all share a passion for helping their local environment.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council nominated Sue Baker, who formed the Dunbogan Bushcare volunteer group in 1999 to restore large tracts of highly degraded habitat. The group has planted 6000 trees, constructed access pathways, eradicated invasive weeds, and introduced erosion control and a koala tree corridor.

The group worked with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to trial aerial spraying on inaccessible areas of Crowdy Head National Park, which eliminated 90 per cent of the prolific bitou bush weed across hundreds of hectares, restoring endangered habitats.

Baker now writes a weekly newspaper column, and has written three environmentally-themed children’s books.

Correctional officer Sanjeev Kumar, a horticulture overseer at Sydney’s Parklea Correctional Centre, was nominated by Blacktown City Council for his many environmental initiatives across the prison.

His chemical-free vegetable gardens supply the prison kitchen, and around two tonnes of salad and vegetables are donated to the charity Food Bank.

Kumar’s sustainability program teaches inmates useful gardening and recycling skills, and highlights the importance of green spaces for health, wellbeing and sustainability.

Campbelltown City Council nominee Alexis Bowen created The Bin Chicken in 2020, a local business collecting containers from local residences, sporting clubs and day care centres each month, reducing the volume of material going to landfill.

Bowen was inspired when walking with her family in the evening in a heavily littered local park; within five weeks, they had gathered more than 5000 discarded single use drink containers.

The Bin Chicken is a community-based, free recycling collection business returning a portion of the refund to the sporting clubs and day cares, while reinvesting in the local community with a free Community Pantry and Recycling Hub.

“Like our Environmental Citizen Award nominees and every individual or group participating in Return and Earn, all our individual actions collectively can make a difference,” said Smalley.

For more information, visit returnandearn.org.au/impact-calculator