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In this Issue The Vision Towards a zero waste environment The Principles Prevention - to avoid the creation of waste. Are you Wise about Waste? 
Have you even seen someone throw litter or a cigarette butt out of their vehicle window? Would you like to do something to make them wise about their waste? To become a Litter Reporter for Keep Australia Beautiful, you can register here You can then fill in a short report regarding the incident. We can then send out an infringement that will make them wiser to the fact that littering any sort of waste from their vehicle is an offence of the Litter Act 1979. Adopt-a-Spot to keep your neighbourhood litter-free Keep Australia Beautiful WA (KAB WA) recently launched community litter prevention program Adopt-a-Spot, which encourages individuals, school, community, sporting and business groups to ‘adopt’ a site in their local community to keep litter-free. Adopters agree to look after a site for two years and KAB WA provides clean up tools, an adoption certificate, volunteer insurance, safety information and recognition on the Keep Australia Beautiful website honour roll. 
It’s a great way to get involved in your community, meet new people, get physically active and help keep your neighbourhood and WA litter-free. For more information or to register your interest, please call 6467 5122 or email kabc@dec.wa.gov.au. 
Znippets Share your good news stories! The Waste Authority is keen to hear good news stories from individuals and Government, business and industry or community organisations undertaking innovative recycling or waste minimisation projects either funded independently or by the Waste Authority. Tell us about your project using the online form. Recent Publications |
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Round 1: 2009 Grant Project funding announced Our congratulations go out to all those approved for Grant Funding for Round 1, 2009. Good luck with the coming year and well done on helping to increase resource recovery and promote waste avoidance. 
Businesses approved for Strategic Waste Initiatives Scheme (SWIS) projects were:
Organisations approved for Community Grants Scheme (CGS) projects were:
To view more details about the successful projects click here Games to be Waste Wise 
The Waste Wise Schools Program has been seeking new ways to actively teach students how to minimize waste through fun and interactive activities. In the beginning of Term 3, two new interactive online games will be live on the Waste Wise website. Designed especially for middle and upper primary school students, one game teaches students how to compost and the other to care for a worm farm. In the Compost game, students are given the opportunity to explore and create their own compost mixture with the right balance of green and brown waste. While in the Worm Farm game, students feed their worms paper and food scraps and guide their worm around the farm to consume the scraps while making sure to maintain a healthy environment for the worms. To access the games visit the Waste Wise website Litter Prevention Strategy for Western Australia 2009-2014 
The Keep Australia Beautiful Council is proud to announce the second state-wide litter prevention strategy for WA – The Litter Prevention Strategy for Western Australia 2009-14 This strategy aims to continue on with the work started with the Litter Prevention Strategy 2006-09. It sets out a framework for effective litter and illegal dumping prevention and management and provides strategic direction for the combined and consistent efforts of community, industry and government throughout the State. Outlined within the five-year strategy are 21 objectives and 40 actions under seven key areas of priority – auditing and evaluation; policy and legislation; education, information and training; enforcement; physical intervention; incentives and stakeholder responsibility. A copy of the strategy can be viewed at the Keep Australia Beautiful website. For further information contact KABC on 6467 5122. International Composting Awareness Week 2009 
International Composting Awareness Week (ICAW) has come and gone with a number of events and conversations to mark the week. This year Compost WA celebrated and promoted International ICAW with an ICAW Prize Draw. There were many reasons for choosing to conduct an online prize draw, the most important of which was to attract attention to the industry body’s new website. The Compost for Soils website, launched nationally at the start of ICAW, acts as a point of contact to the WA Industry Development Officer and the quality compost producers, and show cases the site as a resource tool. An ICAW Prize Draw poster and flyer went out to participating CWA member compost suppliers, flyers accompanied producer invoices, and an electronic flyer was sent out to all members of the Landscape Industry Association of WA. Information about the prize draw aired on the ABC Gardening show Soil Sisters, and on RTR Radio. People were certainly interested in what the new website had to offer and enticed by the prize – accommodation for two at a luxury loft apartment on a winery in Margaret River. There were a number of entries to the competition, indicating that a number of people were out purchasing compost during the week. On Monday, 18 May a name was drawn from the prize draw entry ‘hat’ and Jessica Gillespie from Mandurah was the lucky winner. Jessica is an avid compost user - 'we mulch our gardens every year and bought the winning lot of compost to start off our raised bed veggie garden.
Compost WA is the peak industry body for the recycled organics sector and is promoting the benefits of compost use. Jessica could certainly attest to these benefits and realizes the importance of adding compost to our sandy soils to increase soil fertility and conserve water, and is a strong advocate for using natural products over fertilisers. After the success of ICAW 2009, planning for activities and engagement in ICAW 2010 has already begun. Waste Lives On - Keep Australia Beautiful Week 2009 Keep Australia Beautiful (KAB) Week kicks off on Monday 24 August 2009, providing an ideal opportunity to set yourself the challenge to reduce your household’s waste, to save money and the environment. According to Keep Australia Beautiful, Australia’s longest serving grassroots environment group, Australians are one of the highest producers of waste in the world per capita, with every Australian household throwing away over one tonne of waste each year. 
Up to 80% of what we discard can instead be reused or recycled, with many items and packaging made out glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminium and steel providing the resources to create new products. To find out how you can get involved and register your support visit the Keep Australia Beautiful website at www.kab.org.au or contact the Keep Australia Beautiful council WA on 6467 5169 or via email. Apple’s Electronic Waste collection days a huge success The free electronic waste collection days sponsored by the WA Local Government Association (WALGA), the Waste Authority of WA and funded by Apple Pty Ltd were held on the weekend of the 6th and 7th June 2009 in nine locations around the Perth metropolitan area. The collection days proved to be a huge success with over 4000 people attending the two day event, collecting over 205 tonnes of electronic waste. This was equivalent to around 15 shipping containers, which were then picked up and re-located from the collection points by InfoActiv and then recycled by Sims E-recycling. 
The event was held to coincide with World Environment Day, and was introduced as a part of Apple’s company corporate responsibility and international environment plan. The collection days have also been estimated to have saved the metropolitan regional councils around $200, 000 in e-waste recycling costs. Due to the success of the collection days, WALGA is now in discussions with Apple Pty Ltd of the possibility of holding regional e-waste collection days in the future. Ardross Primary School wins Waste Management and Litter Prevention Award Ardross Primary students are very proud and excited to have won this year’s Sustainable Cities award for Waste Management and Litter Prevention. The students at Ardross Primary School have been working hard to reduce waste and litter by recycling their food scraps and paper bags through the school’s two large worm farms that were purchased thanks to a Waste Wise Schools Infrastructure Grant funded by the Western Australian Landfill Levy fund. They then harvest the Worm Wizz and either sell it to parents and community members, or use it to fertilise the plants they have been propagating. This year students have germinated 4000 seedlings which have been planted around the school, in Al Richardson Reserve, in partnership with the City Melville and at two neighbouring schools. The rest of the plants are being sent to four wheatbelt farms to help rehabilitate salt affected creek lines and return oxygen to the atmosphere. 
Teachers have been conducting a variety of lessons with students from Kindergarten to Year 7 about rethinking, reusing, reducing and recycling waste and students have converted a store room into a “Re Room” where mobile phones, batteries, aluminium ring tops, plastic and cardboard containers are stored before being reused or sent away for recycling. All rooms have paper recycling boxes which are managed and emptied by students. Visiting speakers have spoken on a range of topics including wind turbines, bird species, wild dolphins, river health, desalinisation, waste water and alternative fuel sources. Students have attended excursions to recycling plants and facilities such as the Piney Lakes Environmental Centre. The teachers have also noticed that students are far more conscious and enthusiastic about reducing waste since the school has been focusing on sustainability. They are very keen to protect the natural resources we all enjoy today so that the Earth is healthy in the future. EPHC beverage container investigation The Environment Protection and Heritage Council (the Council), is made up of all the Environment Ministers from Australian States and Territories, the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, which focuses on environment and heritage matters across Australia. Following the April 2008 meeting of the Council work commenced on a preliminary investigation into potential options for national measures, including container deposit legislation, to address resource efficiency, environmental impacts and the reduction of litter from packaging wastes such as beverage containers. 
At the May 2009 meeting of Council the final report from the investigation was tabled along with a peer review, a consultants’ response to the peer review and a covering statement from the EPHC Working Group, which managed the investigation; all of which are available on the EPHC website. Additionally, at the May 2009 meeting, Council agreed to conduct a community attitudes survey on preparedness to pay for national waste measures on packaging materials. Once Council has received the results of the community attitudes survey it will consider whether to progress to a full regulatory impact statement. A full Regulatory Impact Statement is a means to determine whether regulation at the national level is appropriate. 
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Jessica also mentioned that 'the gardens are great for teaching our grandchildren about where their food comes from – it doesn’t all have to come from the shops'. |
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