He's taken it upon himself to help clean up the rubbish people leave behind on beaches - particularly his favourite clean-up spot, Bellambi.

With support from the community - including the postman - who bring him their drink containers to recycle, Jonathan has earned more than $300. That's some 3000 bottles and cans, reducing litter and landfill.

His efforts won the young fellow a Return and Earn Litter prevention prize at the Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns Awards - which he picked up on Friday.

Jonathan described his motivations simply: "because I love the animals, the fishies, the turtles and the whales".

Mum Jessica Young said Jonathan started early this year. "We went to the beach at Bellambi and there was a bunch of cans. We put them in the back of the car and on his first day he earned about $6." And there was no looking back.