A man from Southwark’s waste collecting team, who spends his breaks collecting loose change from people’s rubbish, has found over £800-worth this year and donated it to charity.
Lucian Lodge is one of Veolia Southwark’s traffic marshalls, partly responsible for over 300 waste vehicles every day. As well as ensuring the site runs smoothly, Lucian has been collecting lost change from the recycling facility floor for the past five years.
With no way to reunite the coins with their original owners, Lucian instead donates them to charity. Dedicated to the cause, Lucian said he has been coming into work half an hour early every shift since 2019 to retrieve any loose coins that have been accidentally put in the bin and ended up at the recycling facility.
“It all started in 2019 when I discovered 1p’s, 2p’s, 5p’s and 10p’s hidden in the waste,” he explained.
“My manager agreed I could take out whatever I could find and give to charity. Since that day, I’ve been coming to work early every day to collect coins. My target is three to four pounds a day.”
He decided to donate the money to the Sickle Cell Society – as his son suffers from the disease. It is the only charity in the UK that works with doctors and families of people affected by Sickle Cell Disorder to improve their overall quality of life. Sickle cell is a lifelong blood disease which leads to an increased risk of serious infections in sufferers.
Lucian donated his findings of £811 to the Sickle Cell charity.
“I put my time into doing this because I see what my son goes through with the sickness,” he said.
Over the past eighteen months since his previous donation, he has collected £811 (over £160 more than his last collection.)
To celebrate this donation, Lucian visited the charity’s office in Kilburn to meet the team behind the charity.
After the recycling is collected from homes across London it is sorted into different materials in Veolia Southwark’s Materials Recovery Facility.
Specialised machines will separate metals by type, either by using magnets or currents which repel things like aluminium cans. These materials are pressurised into condensed bales and sent off to be made into new products. However, in this baling process, small pieces of metal, including coins, often slip through the cracks.
This is where Lucian finds the change he collects, so even those pieces that don’t make it through still get recycled.
Lucian added: “‘I love my job and I enjoy contributing to the larger community of Southwark and making a difference. Whether this difference is making sure that all the waste and recycling is disposed of correctly and supporting ecological transformation or donating to charities that improve quality of life, I feel proud of what I do and what I can do for others.”
Matthew Crane, Veolia Southwark Regional Manager: “Lucian’s dedication and efforts in collecting loose change for the Sickle Cell Society are truly inspiring. At Veolia Southwark, we are proud to have employees like Lucian who embody our organisational value of community spirit by supporting charities and communities like this. We are always looking for ways to contribute and positively impact the world.”
