This World Environment Day, Sip, Save & Support offers a simple way to care for the planet while helping restore hope and dignity to people affected by leprosy.
World Environment Day is a good time to look again at the ordinary choices that shape the world around us: what we use, what we throw away, and what we decide still has value.
More Than Empty
An empty drink container is a small but familiar example. It might be left on a kitchen bench after lunch, tossed into a bin at a sports ground, or gathered up after a family barbecue. In many Australian states, that container is worth 10 cents through a container deposit scheme.
It may not seem like much. But it is still value that can be recovered, redirected and used for good.
That is the idea behind Sip, Save & Support, The Leprosy Mission Australia’s container refund campaign.
The campaign invites Australians to collect eligible drink containers with a 10c refund mark, return them through their state’s container deposit scheme, and donate the refund to help people affected by leprosy.
It is a simple way to take something that might otherwise be discarded and turn it into practical help.
When Help Is Out of Reach
Rubbish is never only about what ends up in the bin. It is also about habits, systems and choices: what we consume, what we discard, and what we decide to keep using.
The environments people live in matter too, especially when illness, poverty or stigma are already part of daily life.
Leprosy is curable, but many people still face barriers that make early diagnosis and care harder to reach. Poverty, stigma, disability and distance can delay treatment, deepen isolation, and make recovery much harder than it needs to be.
Sip, Save & Support brings those two kinds of care together: fewer containers sent to landfill here, and practical help for people whose lives have been affected by leprosy.
That help can look like treatment, health education and community care. It can also look like a way for someone to rebuild their future.
What 10 Cents Can Become
Someone like Urmila.
Urmila is a 25-year-old widow living in rural Nepal. When she first became connected with The Leprosy Mission’s work, she did not have a stable income and was trying to provide for her children. With encouragement and help through a self-help group, she began small, first selling eggs from a cardboard table and later buying a mobile snack cart.
That cart has become much more than a business. Urmila has described her shop as the backbone of what she has been able to achieve: paying down debt, providing for her household, sending her children to school, and planning for the future with more confidence than she had before.
Her story is a reminder that restoration is often practical before it is anything else. It can begin with income, food, school fees, security, and the chance to make choices again.
You can collect eligible containers at home, at work, at school, at church, or with a local group. You can start with the containers you already use, return them through your state’s container deposit scheme, and donate the refund to The Leprosy Mission Australia.
Each container is worth 10 cents. On its own, that may not sound like much. But collected together, those refunds can help turn everyday recycling into practical care for people affected by leprosy.
Because what we do with what we consume matters.
And sometimes, something small that might have been thrown away can become part of helping someone else build a fuller life.
Find out more or sign up to be part of the Sip, Save & Support challenge! https://stillathing.org/sipsavesupport/
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