By Karen Brawn, Halve Waste
How much do you know about where your waste goes? What happens to your mattresses, tyres, e-waste and polystyrene? Want to know how the landfill powers 1500 Albury homes or what a dirty MRF is?
If you’re curious, Albury Waste Management Centre will be opening their gates and hosting tours of the centre during this month’s Albury Wodonga Sustainable Living Festival. These free tours will highlight the incredible changes they’ve made in their endeavour to halve waste to landfill by 2020 from 2010 figures. It’s a great opportunity to see in person what happens to the waste we generate in our community and what is being accepted for recycling locally. If you’d like the opportunity to attend, come along to one of two community tours on Wednesday 14th November.
The Albury Waste Management Centre caters for waste from six councils (Albury, Wodonga, Federation, Indigo, Greater Hume, Towong) – a population of over 170,000 people. All of your red lidded bin general waste gets landfilled here and your green lidded organic waste is processed at the centre.
The Albury Waste Management Centre has completed several waste management improvement projects and programs over the last eight years which have had significant positive environmental impacts. These projects have been supported and partially funded by the NSW EPA and the NSW Environmental Trust and includes a unique 3-weigh bridge system.
One major project was the Community Recycling Centre, which boasts a drive through undercover recycling facility, plus the Upcycle and Recycle shop, hosted by Aware Industries, where you can browse a huge range of neatly displayed second-hand items. The Upcycle and Recycle shop diverts approximately 91 tonne a year from landfill by rescuing unwanted items.
Viewing the landfill first hand emphasises the importance of knowing what to place in each bin at home and the simple things we can all do to assist with keeping this landfill operational for future generations. With many more developmental plans in place to reduce waste to landfill, now is a great time to visit.
Date: Wednesday 14 November 2018
Times: Tour 1: 10.00-11.00am, Tour 2: 11.30am-12.30pm
Venue: Albury Waste Management Centre, 565 Mudge Street, Lavington
RSVP: Bookings essential to: education@halvewaste.com.au
To see the full Sustainable Living Festival program visit: alburywodonga.gov.au/slf
