Council’s kerbside bin assessment and education program was recognised with the Resource Recovery Award at the annual NSW Tidy Town Awards in Bathurst over the weekend.
Albury Mayor, Kevin Mack, said the award was fitting recognition for Council’s innovative work in the waste and community education space.
“It’s terrific to see a program like this, which has such a strong community focus and tangible and beneficial outcomes, regarded in this way,” he said.
AlburyCity’s Resource Recovery Team Leader, Andrea Baldwin, said the pandemic had highlighted the need for community education about recycling.
“During the pandemic, so many people worked from home or moved to our region and there was so much packaging being delivered to our homes that we all got a little overwhelmed with what goes in each bin,” she said.
“Our education team realised that after the pandemic we needed to get back out into the community and talk to people at the kerbside where we can explain how our recycling system works.
“To date, the project has increased recycling across Albury and reduced waste to landfill by an average of 200 tonnes per year.
“We can’t recycle valuable resources like food, metals and cardboard once residents put them in the red-lidded waste bin so this project re-sets behaviours that we want all our residents to understand.”
AlburyCity was an entrant in four categories at the state awards, also finishing as a finalist in:
- Resource Recovery, for the Construction and Demolition Material Recovery Facility opened in 2024
- Litter Prevention, for the “Reduce Illegal Dumping” campaign.
In addition, Halve Waste, a program initiated by AlburyCity which implements local solutions to reduce all waste to landfill by 80% by 2030, was highly commended in the Communications and Engagement category for its ‘New Aussies Recycle Too’ campaign.
“It’s wonderful to see the hard work of the team and the commitment of the community recognised in this way as we continue to play a leading role in waste management in Australia,” Ms Baldwin said.