Published on Thursday, 4 November 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
The Shire of East Pilbara would like to thank the local community for taking waste sustainability education to heart, which has resulted in Newman being nominated in two Tidy Towns awards.
Newman has been listed as a finalist for the General Appearance and Environmental Education categories for a range of educational programs and community engagement activities.
Shire President Anthony Middleton said Newman being named a finalist was extraordinary recognition of all the work the Shire staff had done.
“Our team has worked incredibly hard over the past few years to improve waste messaging to reduce waste, divert waste from the landfill and build a better future for our region’s environment,” he said.
“Messaging can only take you so far, and we are incredibly thankful to the Newman community for taking the information to heart and coming on this environmental journey with us.”
The Shire was nominated for the Environmental Education category as a result of the Bin Tagging and Recycling Education projects. The success of Bin Tagging in Newman, as well as other recycling messaging, has enabled the Shire to begin recycling.
The General Appearance nomination acknowledge the successes of the Sustainable Litter Collection Program, the Great Northern Clean-up 2020 and the Newman Futures-facilitated East Newman Street Blitz.
“These nominations mean a lot to us at the Shire, and we are thankful to be able to share in that pride with the community,” Cr Middleton said.
“We are proud to be among other worthy nominees across the seven categories, and we look forward the Tidy Towns State event on November 26th.”
Fact File:
- Find the Keep Australia Beautiful media release on the announcement here: https://www.kabc.wa.gov.au/news/94/tidy-towns-finalists-announced/.
- Sustainable Litter Collection is an ongoing program that began in 2014, in which the Shire of East Pilbara facilitates the program to local clubs and organisations. As part of the program, clubs are paid $2000 by the Shire for one month of litter collection. About 45 bags of litter are collected from Newman streets and environment each week.
- The Shire of East Pilbara organised and facilitated the Great Northern Clean Up on October 31st 2020, where 1.5 tonnes of general waste and about 2500 drink containers were removed from the environment. The containers were returned to the Shire’s Containers for Change refund point and $145 of the $250 refund was donated to the Newman Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service.
- Newman Futures facilitated the first East Newman Street Blitz on June 23rd-24th in 2021. The event encouraged local community members to participate and contribute to a clean and safe public space in East Newman. Newman Futures worked with the Shire to provide support and advice on responsible waste management. 80 local residents and volunteers filled six skip bins with household waste over the two-day event, with thousands of cans and bottles taken to the Containers for Change refund point.
- The Shire’s successful reduction of kerbside recycling contamination levels allowed recycling to begin in Newman, with recyclable materials being transported to a Material Recovery Facility, beginning in May 2021. Recycling contamination rates were as high as 80 in 2020, and reduced to just 7% by June 2021. This result was a possible through the various recycling education initiatives through schools, frequent social media messaging and a State-Government funded Bin Tagging program.
- The 12-week Bin Tagging program involved auditing recycling bins and providing tags that had direct feedback about ways to improve recycling practices. Contamination rates dropped from 40% in the first round, to 7% by the sixth round.
- By working with the community to keep recycling contamination rates low through ongoing education, the Shire will divert about 260 tonnes of materials from landfill every year.
- 72 tonnes of kerbside recycling from Newman was recycled in May and June 2021.
- The Shire will continue ad hoc Bin Tagging to maintain improved recycling practices.
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