A free outdoor movie and a landfill tour are among the fun and informative National Recycling Week activities to encourage Noosa residents to think twice about what they’re throwing away.
“National Recycling Week from November 13 to 19 is an opportunity for all of us to pause and think about what we’re sending to landfill and consider whether it is waste after all or whether it could be recycled instead,” Noosa Council’s Waste Education Officer Emma Menzies said.
Council will screen Sing 2 on Friday November 17 at 6.30pm at Noosaville Lions Park, Gympie Terrace, with free recycling activities for kids from 5pm.
“Bring a picnic blanket and the kids – they’ll get to watch a fun movie, but importantly beforehand they’ll learn a bit about recycling and how the little changes we can all make at home collectively stand to make a big impact on the environment,” Ms Menzies said.
“Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill, it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
A landfill tour will offer residents an insight as to what happens to material placed in red-top bins.
“The free tour of the landfill is on November 29 from 9-11am, with free bus travel from The J at Noosa Junction,” Ms Menzies said.
“You’ll learn about the landfill process, see the vast space waste takes up, discover how greenhouse gas is produced in landfill, and importantly hear why taking responsibility for reducing our own waste makes a positive difference.”
Book online for the landfill tour – bit.ly/landfill_tour
The Garage Sale Trail is also on in November and Ms Menzies says there’s still time to get involved over the two weekends – November 11 and 12, and November 18 and 19.
Noosa Council joined more than 80 local governments across Australia to take part in the national event, which encourages recycling and re-use to reduce waste to landfill.
With free registration, how-to guides, and promotional resources available, it’s easy to host a garage sale, and find where to go to grab a bargain, across the two weekends. Visit www.garagesaletrail.com.au/noosa for details.
National Recycling week is also a great time to get to know Council’s free AI-powered online Recycle Mate app.
“Simply tell the website what items you want to recycle or no longer need, to find a list of Noosa-specific options to either recycle the item or donate it for repair and reuse,” Ms Menzies said.
Council partnered with Recycle Mate, an initiative of the Australian Recycling Industry, in an Australian-first project to create the custom web-based program especially for Noosa locals.
Visit noosa.qld.gov.au/sort-waste to find out more.
Planet Ark founded National Recycling Week in 1996 as an opportunity for Australians to take waste and recycling into their own hands by improving their recycling knowledge and building better recycling habits. Since then, the annual recycling rate in Australia has increased from just 7 per cent of all disposed materials to more than 60 per cent.
“We have come a long way since National Recycling Week was established in 1996, but there is still more we could be doing to ensure valuable resources don’t end up wasted in landfill, especially when it comes to food waste and recycling our packaging,” Planet Ark CEO Rebecca Gilling said.
