June 2021 Update

June 2021 Update

Thank you for your feedback so far on Council's recycling and waste management services. Since the last update in March, the outcomes of the waste focus group workshops in early March were presented to Council on 20 April, with the key findings being:

• The vast majority of respondents reduce, reuse and recycle at least sometimes (for example, take reusable bags with them to the shops, donate unwanted items to charity stores or sell online, reuse jars or containers before recycling them)
• 50% of respondents are incorrectly disposing of items in their yellow-lidded recycling bin
• 37% of respondents do one or more sub-optimal recycling practices (for example, putting dirty recyclables in the red-lidded landfill bin rather than washing them and putting them in the yellow-lidded recycling bin, putting items they’re unsure of in the recycling bin (eg polystyrene, plastic bags)
• Preferred methods of messaging about waste management are through Local Matters, stickers on wheelie bins and the #RecycleRight fridge magnet
• Other issues that had been raised in the online survey were discussed at length in the workshops, including scepticism about what actually happens to their recycling and who is responsible for what parts of waste management, methods of reducing waste to landfill (included making better purchase decisions such as buying products with less packaging where the option is available), and targeted waste education to adults at home as well as school-age children

Over April, Council staff also consulted with our business community by running an online survey as well as targeting a range of business types with particular waste management needs. While we only received 20 responses, they provided a useful snapshot of what’s going on for some businesses and provided opportunities for following up where businesses have requested it. At the same, we have also been talking with our waste operations staff at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre about what we do well, the challenges they face and any opportunities or potential solutions they could put forward.

Last week, the NSW Government released its new 20-year Waste & Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 (Stage 1: 2021-2027) and associated NSW Plastics Action Plan (for example, to reduce plastic waste generation) which pulled apart in detail as to how to incorporate these reforms and targets into Council’s own waste strategy.

Next Steps

The timeline for finalising the strategy document has been extended until March 2022.

We plan to present the draft Lismore Waste and Recycling strategy to Council in December 2021 before placing it on public exhibition for further feedback. We will provide an update closer to this time about how you can review the draft strategy. But in the meantime, there is plenty to action with the feedback Council has received so far for Council’s waste team, particularly around waste education and campaigns to reduce contamination in our kerbside bins – watch this space!