Recycling for Australia Day

Woy Woy will be the only location at Gosford Council's Australia Day events to provide recycling facilities.

Council resolved to proceed with its Best Practice Recycling program at Australia Day celebrations in Woy Woy despite council staff's recommendation against the recycling initiative.

According to the report, the estimated cost to proceed with recycling facilities at Australia Day celebrations in Woy Woy is $4950.

Cr Terri Latella said it was "extremely important" for council to provide recycling facilities at a large community event and to improve the attitudes and behaviour of community members.

"Findings from the previous Australia Day celebrations show we still need to educate the community and start to change their behaviour towards recycling," Cr Latella said.

"This should be a long-term goal for council and we should start with the Woy Woy event."

At its meeting on December 2, council also resolved to use volunteers to help with the event, provide a report to the Reduce Reuse Recycle Task Group to identify the amount of waste collected and the cost to council and to discuss strategies to minimise cost and increase recycling at future Australia Day events.

In July, a report to council found that only 101kg of recyclables was recovered for an expenditure of $8700, and of this nine kilograms was contaminated with non-recyclable matter.

"Placement of unmanaged recycling bins at smaller public events should not be considered given the contamination management issues, recycling returns and the costs for setup and servicing," the report stated.

"Having regard to the low quantity of recyclables collected at the trial event relative to the high future costs for the provision of the service, it is recommended that council not proceed with public place recycling at any future community events held by council."

The report found that the recycling trial that involved both staff time and the provision of external contractor services costing about $8700.

Only 101 kg of recyclables was recovered from the recycling bins, compared to 320 kg of waste recovered from the general waste bins, in which 61 per cent of recyclables were found.

The report stated that the cost of operating next year's Australia Day celebrations at Woy Woy, Gosford and Wagstaff as Waste Wise events would be $10,400.

"Having regard to the low quantity of recyclables collected at the trial event relative to the high future costs for the provision of the service, it is recommended that council not proceed with public place recycling at any future community events held by council," the report concluded.

Council agenda CIT.40, 2 Dec 2008