Rodney is a garbage collector and recycler at Mt Hotham. He has worked at Hotham for 7 years. He is part of a team that recycles as much of the rubbish collected in the resort as possible. In this job he works towards reducing the amount of landfill, and increasing the amount of waste that can be recycled. Even though this is his day job, he brings this to his personal life as well. His story is good news for people in need.

I’m a garbo at Mt Hotham in winter. I take care of garbage, recycling and food waste.  In summer, I do garbage and many other jobs.

I like to recycle anything that I get my hands on but my favourite is clothing – clothing for the homeless. Not for shops. It has to go to homeless people. So I collect all summer and take it down just before winter. It goes to Melbourne City Mission – to the Front Yard for 12-18 year old street kids or people. Next winter, I am looking at The Salvation Army as well which also work with older street people.

I see a lot of clothing and such come through the garbage and it’s just a waste. I figure if I collect it, wash it, bag it and send it down or take it down to them, it helps someone.

I do it not just because it is a waste of good clothing, but also because I’ve been lucky enough in my life. I haven’t been the best of persons in my life. I have had people to help me. So, it is always nice to be able to pay it back, in one way or another. That’s all – just give to something to someone who hasn’t got enough.

This year I took about 12 bags of clothing down. Hats, boots, blankets – anything like that that street people can use. Hopefully this year I can get a bit more. I’m going to put the word out. Hopefully this helps. I just tell people if they’ve got clothing or anything useful like that, bag it up and give us a call. I’ll come and collect it, and take care of it.

If anyone in the Hotham area would like to give to Rodney’s cause, please email him.