Hot Topic Archives: Small DECreases lead to big savings at Donnelly District
Staff at DEC’s Donnelly District have found they can save both money and benefit the environment with simple changes.
One recent example is the decision by National Park Ranger John Hanel to purchase the herbicide Glyphosate in big drums rather than the usual small plastic containers.
John said he bought two 1,000-litre drums rather than 100 20-litre plastic containers.
“This has prevented the need to dispose of so many containers through the shire’s ‘drum muster’ as we will now return the big drums to the supplier, who has a deposit system, for reuse."
“Using the big drums will also be a much easier and less time-consuming process than the process of carting, stacking and washing out the dozens of smaller containers."
“And it has saved us about $6,000.”
DECrease Donnelly District committee member Anne Lillie said many other changes had been made to reduce consumption, waste and expenditure both in the field and in the office.
“Gas barbecues at recreation sites throughout the district have two hot plates and so usually two pilot lights running continuously. During the quiet winter months, it was decided to turn one of the pilot lights off, reducing gas usage,” Anne said.
“In the office, the administration team has made a concerted effort to save paper and to recycle, reduce and reuse wherever we can. For example, the second side of paper gets used wherever possible, we buy refills for our pens rather than throwing them away when they run out and we scan and email information rather than photocopy and post."
“In many cases these are just small changes but it’s great to see the increasing awareness within staff and how people encourage one another to reduce unnecessary consumption.”
The Donnelly District Office has set up a local DECrease committee which meets monthly and is lead by Anne and Jeff Kimpton who share a membership on DEC’s department-wide DECrease committee.
“One of the sub-committee’s bigger projects was to reduce the lawn around the office by half and replace it with a water-wise garden,” Anne said.
“We planted more than 600 native plants in one afternoon and the garden is starting to look great".
“The Donnelly District DECrease committee was also pleased to find out recently that the Shire of Manjimup will be giving us a worm farm, which will enable us to compost any food scraps and some paper.”
For more information contact Anne or John at Pemberton (9776 1207, Anne Lillie or Jeff Kimpton) or DECrease Senior Project Coordinator James Milne (6467 5454 or James Milne).
You can also contact James if you wish to report DECrease achievements in your office, unit or district, who can pass them on to the DECmatters editor or email the Towards Zero Waste Website Coordinator.
