ALEX Zeller plans to pay for his great-grandson's university education with the money from recyclables.

Mr Zeller has been collecting thousands of aluminium cans and plastic bottles for more than a year ever since he heard the Maranoa Regional Council was implementing the Container Refund Scheme where he could exchange eligible containers for a 10 cent refund at a drop-off points in Roma and Mitchell.

At 86, Mr Zeller can been seen scrounging through containers and picking up bottles at any chance to give his 12-month-old great-grandson Hudson Smith a headstart in life.

"I'm not too proud stopping in daylight to pick up the bottles, nor proud going through bins, however I want to give Hudson a good chance in life,” Mr Zeller said.

"A bit of kick-on for the latter years you might say.

"University fees keep increasing and I'll continue to collect bottles until I'm unable to, with all the refunds going into an account for Hudson so he will have financial aid for his studies.”

On Saturday, the Container Refund Scheme started at the Roma Refuse Site with a total of 17,000 containers exchanged for the opening day.

Cr Geoff McMullen said it was was a great outcome for the first day.

"The more containers we can get out of landfill, it is going to be much more economical when the government brings in the land tax,” he said.

Up until 3pm on Wednesday, the total of containers exchanged at the new drop-off points was 34,084.

Roma had 31,726 containers in total and Mitchell had 2358.

Mr Zeller said the scheme was a great initiative and the fruition becomes more plausible with the drop-off point in Roma.

"It's hard to know how many bottles I have collected but I had two sheds full of bags and the majority of my backyard filled as well, each bag having about 60 bottles in them,” Mr Zeller said.

"I loaded my car up until there was only room for one passenger and off I went to the new drop-off point. "The refunds have been processed and they will get sent down to Brisbane into an account for Hudson.” A Containers for Change spokesman said Queensland has now hit 259million containers around the state. "17,000 containers is a great achievement for Roma given the town's population and number of refund points,” the spokesman said. "We exchange around 2.5million containers a day in Queensland, so when you look at the bigger picture 17,000 is put into perspective. "It's looking very positive for the future, we've had an amazing response around the state and in some cases you could say it has been overwhelming with the amount of containers coming back, we've exceeded the forecasts which all bodes well for the future of the scheme.”