ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY
In May 2015 we entered into a new domestic waste collection contract and several improvements were made as a result of this change. The introduction of the new at-call Household Cleanup collection was well received by the community with the streets of Ryde being a lot cleaner and the incidence of illegal dumping dropping significantly owing to easier monitoring. Residents still have access to up to five collections per calendar year, however the new service allows them to pre-book a cleanup service at their convenience, up to 12 months in advance. To help communicate these changes, we introduced a new ‘Smarter, Cleaner, Greener’ logo and waste branding. This new branding is being used to promote the City’s Waste Management Strategy throughout all waste communication and educational campaigns. A smaller 80L waste bin was also introduced to encourage residents to reduce the amount of waste, with a financial reward for resizing their waste bin. This year a number of additional initiatives were established to increase the levels of recycling throughout the City of Ryde including: • The Living on the Block Project, which focuses on maximising recycling in multi-unit dwellings and minimising illegal dumping and contamination in recycling and garden organic bins. • Through the Ryde Environmental Educators Network (REEN) local preschools continued to be provided with waste education materials, workshops and information sessions to assist them in educating students on the four Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). This program has expanded to include composting and garden based workshops. • An e-waste recycling collection challenge was held during National Recycling Week for primary schools and collected approximately 1.8 tonnes. • The Sustainable Waste to Art Prize (SWAP) invited artists and members of the community to enter the competition with up-cycled functional art made from recycled material or works with a sustainable living theme. The awards night attracted approximately 195 artwork submissions of which around 80 were selected for exhibition.
Waste education is a great tool to assist with recycling and minimising waste throughout the City of Ryde. During 2015/16 the City of Ryde’s waste department coordinated, developed and delivered a suite of workshops to address key waste issues to the local community, including the following. • A litter reduction education campaign was carried out in conjunction with the Gladesville Catchment Litter Prevention Campaign to raise awareness of the issue of litter entering our waterways. Car litter bags and other resources were distributed with a large mural painted on a wall in Trim Place, Gladesville being the highlight of the campaign. • Your Waste Adventure: Four waste tours were held to help participants to better understand what happens to their waste. The half-day tours started with an informative video on how a recycling facility works and followed by a visit to the Eastern Creek Landfill and the Visy Material Recycling Facility at Smithfield where residents can see what happens to their recyclables and how they are sorted. • Compost/worm farm demonstrations: Two demonstrations were conducted at the local community garden and local nursery ‘The Habitat’, which provided information on constructing compost bins and worm farms and answered questions about maintenance. Together these will help minimise unavoidable food waste like peelings, offcuts and coffee grounds. • Kitchen gardening workshop: Two workshops were held to provide information about using compost, worm castings and worm juice produced from compost bins and worm farms. • Promotion of the new At Call Household Cleanup and reducing plastic bottles and increasing recycling awareness was the focus of this year’s Granny Smith Festival. A water station was available for festival goers to refill reusable drink bottles to reduce plastic bottle consumption.
COLLABORATED WITH LOCAL SCHOOLS During the year we encouraged community participation in CleanUp Australia Day with eight businesses, 10 schools, 10 youth groups and 22 community groups helping to clean up our City, resulting in the collection of nearly three tonnes of rubbish over the week. Through the Ryde Environmental Education Network (REEN) we engaged with more than 20 different local schools and other local educational institutes; during just one series of our ‘Ready, Set, Grow’ (RSG) school gardens workshops 154 students got their hands dirty and learned about growing food. A introductory RSG workshop was also held in conjunction with NSW Health at Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre. Speakers included Council staff, an OEH sustainability education expert, EEC staff, permaculture, gardening and composting experts and NSW Health staff. Teachers attending the workshop said they were very satisfied with the event. We also worked with Keep Australia Beautiful to conduct litter and environmental education workshops for local schools. Meetings with guest speakers from organisations such as the Australian Museum, ECEEN, Cool Australia, Education for Sustainability, Tuckshop, Dirt Girl World and a former senior sustainability coordinator at the City of Ryde were organised throughout the year for REEN schools. Sixteen of the 29 schools within the City took part in challenges to increase awareness of the environment. A professional development day was held at Eden Gardens for early childhood learning educators, with approximately 50 attendees keen to improve their environmental knowledge and gather ideas to pass on to their preschoolers. The ‘Environmental Educator Professional Development Day’ was held in September 2015 with over 50 representatives from local child care, preschool and after school centres. Surveys indicate very high level of satisfaction and strong interest in ongoing programs.
City of Ryde Annual Report 2015/16
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