Apex club recycling for a cause

A volunteer club leading a recycling collection drive is asking Horsham residents to contribute to their efforts to help both the environment and raise money for key community projects.

Horsham’s Apex Club 15 is encouraging community members to contribute their old newspapers, books and catalogues to its monthly recycling collection runs.

Past fundraising efforts have allowed the club to donate to projects in the Wimmera – most recently a $20,000 car to Centre for Participation’s volunteer driver program.

Club president Dylan Fulton said strict physical-distancing measures were preventing the club from hosting its regular barbecue fundraisers.

He said club members had refocused efforts on the recycling runs and he is encouraging residents, living within Horsham Rural City, to contribute to the cause.

“People can leave their papers out on their nature strip. We start our run at 8.30am on the first Sunday of each month,” Mr Fulton said.

“The more people who contribute, the more we can recycle and the more money we can raise to donate to projects within the community.”

The club turns a profit from collecting about six tonnes of recyclables each month that is deposited to Wimmera recycling centre Wastebusters, south of Horsham. But Mr Fulton said he believed there was ‘far greater’ potential to collect more.

Wastebusters owner and director Mick Morris is imploring Horsham and district residents to put out their papers.

“They’re getting roughly $400 to $500 a month, but I think there’s a lot more potential out there – we used to collect 24 tonnes of papers a week,” he said.

“If you throw your papers out to the nature strip once a month, Apex will collect them and they will go back into a great cause.”

Mr Fulton said without events, the club was pretty limited with what it could do in the community.

“Our clubs are built on doing barbecues – we didn’t have Relay for Life this year either. We love being there and putting on the barbecue,” he said.

“The Longerenong B and S ball in August is our major fundraiser for the year, and it is cancelled. We need to get back to basics now.”

Mr Fulton said the club was looking to work with other Apex clubs in the Wimmera to determine what other fundraising opportunities existed.

“We’re going to have an inter-club meeting with all the local clubs including Goroke, Warracknabeal and Beaufort to learn what they’re doing and see if we can find other opportunities,” he said.

“Our club is all about fellowship, even if we’re not making money it’s just being there together – that was my reason for joining.”