GEELONG Sustainability members say they learnt a lot from their first waste-wise event, the National Celtic Festival (NCF) at Portarlington on the weekend.<\/p>\n
The group assembled a wash against waste kit from community-donated mugs and support from Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group and City of Greater Geelong.<\/p>\n
Geelong Sustainability (GS) president and Green Team coordinator Vicki Perrett said the public response\u00a0 was overwhelmingly positive \u2013 \u201cpeople were genuinely impressed and grateful for the free service\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe breadth of engagement was wide and very encouraging,\u201d Ms Perrett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom council officers from other regions who lamented not having a similar group to GS in their\u00a0region, to other event organisers who wanted us to help them, to vendors who wanted us to go on the circuit with them to the general public.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar and wide, people are keen to manage their waste better if they know how.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Perrett said director Una McAlinden and her team worked with GS in the months before the festival to develop these initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all understood that there would be lots to learn from this first waste-wise event,\u201d she said. \u201cNCF even made sustainability the theme for its festival limerick contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Perrett said most food vendors cooperated and worked with GS to offer people washable plates, cutlery and cups.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirtually all food vendors came with cardboard rather than single-use plastic packaging. A few had plastic cutlery while others had bamboo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Perrett said the key waste reduction statistics were: GS\u2019 green team of 26 volunteers worked more than 300 hours; wash against waste process resulted in 2,520 plates and 1,350 mugs being washed and sanitised; 840 non-recyclable cups were collected and will be reprocessed using the innovative technique being pioneered by Closed Loop Aust, which will separate the cardboard outer from polyethylene liner.<\/p>\n
Volunteers also decontaminated the contents of the many yellow-lidded recycling bins so that the recyclables could be successfully reprocessed.<\/p>\n
Ms Perrett said the festival gave GS valuable insight into people\u2019s understanding (and lack thereof) about recycling.<\/p>\n
She said festivals and community events provided an excellent opportunity to engage and re-educate people about vital matters like waste minimisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GEELONG Sustainability members say they learnt a lot from their first waste-wise event, the National Celtic Festival (NCF) at Portarlington on the weekend. The group assembled a wash against waste kit from community-donated mugs and support from Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group and City of Greater Geelong. Geelong Sustainability (GS) president and […]<\/p>\n