Over the past six months, nine-year-old Tom Burke has spent hundreds of hours picking up bottles and cans from his Kogarah neighbourhood.

Tom had heard about the NSW Environmental Protection Authority's "Return and Earn" scheme, which launched last week and pays out 10¢ for eligible beverage containers. Like any good entrepreneur, he started early.

Nine-year-old Tom Burke with his collection of cans and recyclables.

"He'd go for his walks on the weekend, cleaning up local ovals, local streets, wherever he saw any sort of container," said Gordon Burke, Tom's dad. So that he could pick up more litter in one go, Tom used sticky-tape to refurbish a "granny shopping trolley" that he found in a recycling bin.

The NSW government introduced a new recycling scheme on December 1, which it hailed as the biggest anti-litter initiative in the state's history.