Across the Sydney metropolitan area, 55 per cent of household and commercial waste goes into landfill each year. It’s estimated that this costs businesses and households over $750 million each year.
The Mayors from Councils across Sydney held a summit last week at Sydney Town Hall to share ideas and strategies for reducing waste. I participated in a lively panel discussion that reinforced the need for strong and immediate action if we are to win the ‘war on waste’.
Bayside Council is well positioned in this area but there is always more to do. I took the opportunity to highlight the success of Bayside Council’s Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.
The strategy embodies the circular economy and is a rolling program with continuous action plans, improvements and other initiatives.
Bayside’s work has been recognised in the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable Cities Awards where we have been finalists for 5 consecutive years. We’ve also won 12 awards in multiple categories.
Elements of our strategy have also been recognised by other awards such as the Excellence in Environment Award for our Bayside Community Recycling Innovation Hub that is used to collect and sort materials like mattresses, clothing, oils, batteries, and expanded polystyrene that specialists can collect and recycle. We are also a finalist in this year’s Waste category for the National Local Government Awards.
Whilst on the issue of waste, you may have heard that there is an emerging problem being caused by people disposing of their old lithium batteries in household waste bins.
These batteries are dangerous when compacted and have resulted in a number of fires in garbage trucks right across Sydney. Please do not put batteries of any kind in household waste bins. Bring them to one of Council's Community Recycling Drop Off Events or drop them off at collection points throughout NSW.
In closing I’d like to call out a couple of timely events. The first is National Sorry Day, today Friday 26, and National Reconciliation Week which is happening next week.
You can also find details of a Community Forum which will be happening next week on Voice to Parliament in this e-news.
The other event is the second trial of closing Bay Street, Brighton Le Sands for the weekend.
As always, please feel free to contact me or my fellow Councillors if we can help you with any Council matter.