From his humble home in Canberra, charity founder Tim Miller has managed to rally thousands of followers across Australia.
The Lids 4 Kids movement has saved millions of plastic lids from landfill.
Until recently, Mr Miller sent them to Melbourne-based charity Envision Hands, which makes artificial limbs for children.
But the manufacturer had to stop taking lids so it could whittle down its stockpile.
"We would appreciate, for the time being, if you could hold off from forwarding more tops," a letter to supporters read.
And so Mr Miller will have to keep the thousands of lids being processed each week at his home in Aranda.
Influx of donations creates a bottleneck
Mr Miller began Lids 4 Kids just a few months ago with a little green bin at a street library near his home.
Several dozen lids were donated in the first few days.
Then the initiative attracted media attention, and Mr Miller found himself emptying the bin at least three times a day.
"It went viral ... I had over one thousand messages."
There are now almost 7,000 collection points around the country, and 36 groups helping process the donations.
Lids 4 Kids is processing about 50,000 bottle caps a week.
But as the collection inside Mr Miller's house reached tipping point, his wife had to intervene.
"One important thing for me is to stay married," the father of three said.
"[My wife] said 'I know you're not that well and you'd like to do some charity work. But it's got to get out'."
At one point about 150 volunteers were drafted to sort through the mounds of lids during the week.
And the lids continue to pour into Mr Miller's home.
New home a top priority
Envision Hands recently wrote to its supporters after reaching nearly five million donations.
"Because of your generosity we are also looking at developing other products that will assist disadvantaged people both in Australia and overseas," the letter read.
But it had to slow down as it processed its backlog.
Mr Miller said he would not ask locals to stop donating.
Instead, he reached out to local businesses, government and plastic producers to help process the materials in Canberra.
"We're going to be turning these lids into dozens of different products," he said.
"Anything you can think of that a school needs that's made out of plastic — anything we can think of that will benefit children in Australia."
.jpg?w=600)
