We all know recycling e-waste is good for the environment. But for dozens of intellectually impaired people in Brisbane, it's given them a new lease on life. This story is all about turning heartbreak into joy one screwdriver at a time.
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00:00Pull, pull, pull! Come on! Yes!
00:05Joshua Lowndes is the reason this place exists. He spends hours breaking down old TVs, recycling
00:13bit by bit. It's a social enterprise called E-Waste Connection and was born from a desire
00:21by his mum Monique to find something meaningful for her disabled son to do.
00:26Someone for the life that could have been. I mean, you know, you don't expect to raise
00:31a child who is still so dependent on you at 24.
00:35Joshua was a healthy, happy baby. But that all changed when he started having seizures.
00:40So I started about two and then got really bad by the time he was five or six. That's
00:45when he had to have an operation to have some of his brain removed to try to stop the seizures.
00:51He is now non-verbal but loves pulling things apart, as do all the others who come to the
00:57workshops.
00:58It's my muscles, see? Good for muscles.
01:00There are three sites across Brisbane. Together they recycle or reuse 14,000 kilograms of
01:07goods a month.
01:09It's so satisfying seeing a smile on their face. Some people might be struggling to pull
01:13a screw out. Just to even finish a keyboard or take a few screws out is an accomplishment.
01:17This is a place of acceptance. Everybody who comes here is just a person. They know
01:22them by their name, not by their ability or lack of ability.
01:26They feel like they're part of a team and quite a few of them have then been able to
01:30go on and get paid employment because of being used to staying on task and signing in and
01:36having to wear their PPE.
01:38They take anything that plugs into a power point, uses a charger or is powered by a battery.
01:44And big TVs. You've got big TVs that work.
01:47Yeah, some work, some don't.
01:49It's pure joy to watch the teams work and play.
01:53All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right.
01:55An enterprise with a heart.
01:57This is a great company to work for and this is a superb workforce here.
02:03And do you get up to any mischief?
02:04No, not at all.
02:07Volunteers are welcome.