If we weighed the entire population of Katherine today it would equal the same amount of cans and bottles crushed and sent away for recycling in the last seven years.
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Since its inception in 2012, M.T Bins has seen 44 million containers - mostly beer and soft drink cans - pass through its container deposit scheme.
It has been a case of dedicated recycling efforts by the community in a town with no other options.
The owner of M.T Bins, Michael Knight, said Katherine has an 80 per cent recovery rate of used cans and bottles.
While not every person returns them for the 10 cent reward, the mountain of waste transported for recycling over the last seven years has saved 611 tonnes of waste from entering landfill.
Katherine's rubbish tip has reached capacity even without the addition of millions of cans and bottles, and is slated to be covered over.
"A lot still ends up down the tip face, but since we have started the streets are tidier," Mr Knight said.
"Jenny Duggan, Katherine's resident rubbish collector, has very little to do these days because the rubbish simply isn't there."
On a quick visit of the site today, the Katherine Times, saw a constant stream of residents and tourists pour in to recycle their cans.
One family of four, travelling through the NT, had saved up four large bags of used drink containers.
"That is pretty common," Mr Knight said.
"We have a lot of people come through every day, now the cans are worth something and there is so much heat on recycling."
The small Katherine business has had to hire three people to count, sort and crush the cans, and people from as far as Borroloola, Pine Creek and Mataranka make regular visits to ensure their cans are recycled.
Once the cans have been sorted into large square bales they are transported to Adelaide for recycling.
There, the scheme coordinator charges the associated drink manufacturers and siphons the money back to the collection depots.
"Ten cents works out quite well," Mr Knights said.
"Clubs don't have cake stalls anymore, they have can drives."
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