Other Past Projects
Previous Waste Forum projects have included:
Compost Doctor
The Compost Doctor is a free service providing advice on home composting. You can ask a question about composting via the website www.compostdoctor.org.au or you can search the Q&A database for answers or you can text your question and pictures to the Compost Doctor on 0438465541.
Who is the Compost Doctor? The Compost Doctor is a qualified horticulturist with over 40 years' experience in the field. The Compost Doctor has spent many years providing advice to home gardeners on sustainable gardening practices and composting through workshops and local radio.
The Compost Doctor is an initiative of REROC and is supported by the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW EPA's Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, funded from the waste levy.
Yours2Take
Yours2Take was an on-line resource exchange which aimed to reduce the amount of waste entering council landfill sites.
The site allowed users to advertise products that they would like to give away and that they believe have a re-use capability, to someone who has a use for them. Thousands of tonnes of reusable product are sent to landfill every year because it's too hard to find someone who wants to reuse them. Yours2Take made it easier for people to link with others who can put those unwanted items to good use.
The website was launched in March 2008 and in February 2016 the decision was made to close the site. The site was closed as there are many other commercial websites that offer a very similar service that we were not able to complete against. It was a hard decision as the site had won the Waste Forum many awards over the years however it was the right decision.
A wide range of items have been available on the website to be given away over the years including computers, cars, baby clothing, toys, magazines, furniture, piano, plants, washing machines and even an ironing board cover! We have also had several houses listed to giveaway on the site. Users were registered from all over Australia.
Litter Reduction project
The Waste Forum has been succesful in securing funding to conduct several litter reduction campaigns.
In 2009 and 2010, during the Christmas and New Year period, REROC undertook a regional education awareness campaign targeting cigarette butt litter within the tourism and hospitality industries. Posters, car tidy bags and 9,000 'butt bins' were distributed to tourism and hospitality businesses around the REROC and RAMROC Murray region. Radio ads promoting ‘personal ashtrays’ (otherwise known as butt bins) developed by the Department with the it’s a living thing tagline, were aired on both FM and AM stations throughout both regions.
Our Future is in the Bag
Our Future is in the Bag is the Waste Forum' s plastic bag exchange program. The aim of the project is to reduce plastic bag use by residents in REROC LGAs.
Via a television advertising campaign, council newsletters and media releases residents in the REROC region were invited to bring 20 plastic bags into a REROC member council and exchange them for a non-woven, reusable bag. The project was enormously successful in its first when 400,000 plastic bags were collected for recycling. The project ran again in 2008 and has continued on a much smaller scale in 2009.
Bagged!
The Bagged! project was targeted at businesses with the aim of encouraging them to offer customers alternatives to plastic bags.
The Waste Forum found that one of the hurdles to the use of biodegradable bags was the unit cost. We set up a buying group for small retailers which lowered the unit cost of the bags from 11 cents to 2.9 cents per bag. Retailers could also purchase paper bags and reusable non-woven bags as part of the project. 32 business participated and to date they have purchased over 43,000 biodegradable bags and 910 re-usable paper bags 1,100 calico or non-woven bags.
The Future is in the Bag and Bagged! won the inaugural Keep Australia Beautiful (NSW) Plastic Bag Reduction Initiative Award.
REROC Paper Chase
The REROC Paper Chase was one of the first resource recovery education programs initiated by the REROC Waste Forum. The project aimed to increase the level of paper recycling undertaken by businesses in the eastern Riverina. 117 businesses expressed interest in participating in the project with 88 (75%) signing up to have their paper collected for recycling.
It included a competition for participating businesses. Ian Kiernan was guest speaker at the final lunch where the winner of the competition was drawn. There were nine business sponsors of the project including local media outlets. Over one year it was estimated that an addition 84,500kgs of additional paper was recycled as a result of the promotion
The Riverina, It's a Living Thing
The Riverina It's a Living Thing project aimed to introduce environmentally sustainable technologies to households in the eastern Riverina.
Residents could purchase a sample kit that included: energy efficient lights, tap timers, reusable shopping bags, compost scrap bins, worm compost, car tidy bags, butt bins, diary (containing discount vouchers for environmentally friendly products) and a calendar.
1500 Kits were produced and were sold for $15.00 each. The value of the products in the Kit was approximately $80.00. Promotional events were held in each LGA. The promotional display included a demonstration of a working water efficient shower and a demonstration of energy efficient lighting.
The project evaluation of 100 participants showed of those that purchased the Kit for their own use:
92% had used all the items in it;
70% of respondents advised that they thought they were using less water;
25% of respondents felt that they were using less electricity;
89% of people indicated that they were likely to purchase more items like those in the Kit;
94% of respondents thought that the project was extremely worthwhile or very worthwhile.
The project received a Highly Commended in the 2005 Local Government Environmental Awards
