Vol. 20 18 No. No. 30 27 Vol.
FREE FREE PUBLICATION PUBLICATION
Wednesday, 2016 Wednesday, January February13, 7, 2018
Festival success Grampians Music Festival organisers are confident the annual event is primed to continue growing after a huge weekend of entertainment at Halls Gap. Festival director Carly Flecknoe said members of an organising committee were absolutely thrilled with the event, which focuses on promoting and presenting up-and-coming Australian musicians. “We’re still working on numbers but the crowd was up on last year, with early estimations of between 700 and 800 patrons. We had an amazing crowd with no security or first-aid incidents,” she said. “We’re deep into planning and have had a lot of queries about next year’s festival, which is exciting. It really augurs well for its ability to continue to grow.” From left, Lori Heard, Naja Wells, Maddie Ervin, Evie Wallace and Ashleigh Voigt enjoy themselves at Grampians Music Festival. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
‘Keep recycling’ A
BY DEAN LAWSON
western Victorian waste-recovery leader has called on people across the region to continue recycling efforts despite uncertainty surrounding the industry. In fact Grampians Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group executive officer La Vergne Lehmann said circumstances demanded an even greater need for everyday householders to correctly separate their waste. She said instead of a Chinese import
ban of co-mingled recycling waste being an end to recycling in western Victoria and other parts of Australia, it represented an opportunity for the industry to become more targeted and efficient. “The bottom line is that we want people to continue to recycle and for all of us to do it not only better, but properly,” she said. “It is likely that the nature of the industry will have to change and business models will have to adapt to a new reality. Although a third of our re-
IN THIS ISSUE
cycled products go to China there are still markets in Victoria that remain buoyant. But what we know is that the better we are at providing a quality recycled product, which means having less contamination at the source, the stronger position the industry can operate. “Recycling is like any other export industry, such as mining and agriculture, and subject to world markets. “We have to accept that markets for plastic, glass, metal and paper will fluctuate and adapt our practices to
meet changes in demand.” Horsham, Ararat, Northern Grampians, Hindmarsh, Yarriambiack and West Wimmera municipalities operate wastecollection services alongside Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group. Many will be directly affected by recycling exporter Visy informing bin-collection contractor Wheelie Waste that because of the Chinese ban it will stop accepting recycled waste from Friday. Municipal leaders across the country fear that Australia faces heavy
financial costs if the industry stumbles towards the brink of collapse. Failure to find markets for recycled waste will lead to either storing recyclables, which many councils have already decided to do in the short term, or treating them as general landfill waste – expensive and unsustainable. Ms Lehmann said she remained confident a workable resolution would emerge and if anything, the issue would provide a catalyst to unearthing fresh opportunities. Continued page 3
• Bypass speculation • Four dealers car sale • Hornets set for grand finals
Phone: 03 5382 1351 Read it online: www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au
KL180902_Press_WeekAdvert_Horsham_CE_206x58indd.indd 1
AUDITED: 22,601 COPIES
April 2017 to September 2017
Source: AMAA; CAB Total Distribution Audit for further information visit www.auditedmedia.org.au
31/1/18 10:19 am