Waste Wednesday Award: Senior Communications Officer Cassie Gates, Mayor Phyllis Miller and Waste and Environmental Specialist Hiral Patel.
Forbes Shire Council has been awarded the winner of Division A: Behaviour Change in Waste for their Waste Wednesday social media campaign.
“Through this campaign we engage with the community and spread awareness about the ongoing resource recovery facilities available in the Forbes Shire, as well as innovations and additions to the existing resource recovery programs,” says Forbes Shire Council Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM.
“It is our commitment to continue this campaign on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future, providing high quality and valuable information to the community about improving resource recovery and waste issues.”
Council also received a Highly Commended in Division A: Sustainable Infrastructure for the solar lights around Lake Forbes walkway.
Forbes Shire Council installed five kilometres of solar lighting along the ten kilometres of walking track surrounding Lake Forbes.
“This is actually believed to be the longest installation of solar lighting in the world,” Phyllis continued, “The work so far has been undertaken by farmers and farm labourers affected by the 2018/19 drought in a special employment program created by Council to help support the local farming community during the drought.”
“The installation of the solar lights next to the walking tracks surrounding the Lake has proven to be highly popular with residents and visitors alike. We continued to use these lights in lower Templar Street as well due to their efficiency and the ambient light they project.”
Forbes Shire Council has also been nominated as one of three Councils within NSW by NSW EPA to be involved in a pilot education campaign in relation to Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) as a means to reduce the amount of organic waste going into landfill.
Another bin audit will take place in November to identify if waste behaviours have in fact changed due to the education program.