Family's surprising discovery after eating 2160 eggs
Peter took to social media to try and repurpose his 2.75m high stack of egg cartons.
A NSW man has shared his surprising predicament after eating 2,160 eggs.
Peter Knill encouraged his family of five to stack the cartons up after they consumed each dozen and the result shows just how much waste is generated from one food item alone. “We don’t even eat many eggs,” he said.
“There must be so many things like that, that are thrown away that could be repurposed,” Peter told Yahoo.
After saving 180 cartons over two years, Peter amassed an amazing 2.75 metre-high stack. He took to social media to try and give them away, but while you might imagine they could simply be handed back to the supplier, that wasn’t possible. That's because reusing them carries a risk of salmonella cross-contamination.
Coke bottles were worth more than the contents
As a dedicated environmentalist, Peter didn’t want the egg cartons going to waste. While recycling is preferable to the boxes simply going to landfill, processing them still requires a large amount of energy expenditure.
While NSW only began its Return and Earn can and bottle recycling scheme in 2017, when Peter was growing up in Zimbabwe, containers were highly coveted for their worth.
“There were deposits on Coke bottles. At one stage because of sanctions the deposit and a lack of foreign currency, the bottle itself was like gold. It was worth more than the contents because they had to clean them and reuse them,” he said.
Now living in Australia, the 59-year-old environmentalist is surprised by the lack of value locals place on packaging items. “The first world is a very throwaway society,” he said. “I even see people throwing stuff in their red bin that could go in their yellow bin because they just couldn’t be bothered. They just don’t seem to care.”
What happened to Peter's 180 egg cartons?
Peter said while his children laugh at him for his obsession with reusing items, they do see the logic in his behaviour.
The egg cartons he saved were quickly snapped up by a local woman who wanted to use them for arts and crafts with a disability support group.
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Another person suggested cartons can also be used for planting seedlings, while others noted they are great for worm farm bedding.
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