It is with deep regret, and after much soul searching, Maclean Lions Club Inc. are announcing the closure of their community project regarding the recycling of the ‘Return and Earn’ 10c containers. 

Due to the small number of club members and the number of people required to staff the depot, it has become too big a burden for the club to bear.

 The club has been asking for the community for volunteers to help with this project, however only five people from the community have donated some of their time.

The Lions club facilities in Townsend are unsuitable, making the processing of containers inefficient because of double and triple handling etc. The Return and Earn sub-committee have been working tirelessly on other venues without success.

We even approached the local council, regarding better facilities but without success.

The volume of containers received has been steadily increasing as the community has become aware of the facility. The community has also been trained, separating their containers into glass, plastic and tins, which made sorting and counting much easier for the Lions volunteers. There is no doubt that the area needs a recycling facility without having to go to Yamba or Grafton.

We, therefore, hope that some other organisation will be able to continue the good work.

It is expected that Lions Club will close the Townsend ‘Return & Earn’ project on Sunday March 29, so that the community and Tomra can make alternative arrangements.

Maclean Lions club wishes a heartful thank you to all those people who have supported us and help in this project since August last year.

Mark Ingram