The social media storm over the idea of fortnightly red bin collection has been a red herring in Wollongong City Council’s draft Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2024-2034, which is on exhibition until 23 July.
“This is really important. This is a 10-year strategy,” said sustainability advisor Dr Helen Lewis, the convenor of Circular Plastics Illawarra.
“I think they're genuinely open to input and they've run what I think has been a pretty good consultative process.
“It may not be perfect, but it's a really, really good draft strategy and we want to encourage people to have their say, to tell the council what they like and maybe what they'd like to see done differently and just not get distracted by the whole red bin discussion in social media, which is sort of sending people down a rabbit hole.”
Positive signs in draft plan
There are many good ideas in council's 10-year plan, Helen said. “The fact that they're considering options to add soft plastics to kerbside collection, that's a big plus. And something that the community would really welcome.
Helen applauds the idea of kerbside soft plastics recycling for homes, but says setting this up could take time because end markets are still being developed.
“Personally, I'd like to see something happen in the short term … we could follow Wingecarribee [Shire Council] and just have a community drop off point. That won't be a huge volume, but it will at least give the community members who are super keen and stockpiling their soft plastics – of which we know a few – an option.”
Other good points in the draft plan include recycling more items via Whyte’s Gully waste depot at Kembla Grange, Helen said.
“For example, expanded polystyrene and textiles are two of the problematic waste streams that could be usefully collected through the community recycling centre.”
She likes the fact that council is investigating a reuse and repair hub, which could be similar to Shellharbour’s Tinkerage workshops. “The Tinkerage sounds amazing. They get community members to come in to repair things under supervision, to learn how to repair things – it’d be great to have something like that at Whyte’s Gully.
It’s great that the draft plan not only tackles waste management, but also looks at the circular economy and what this might mean, Helen said.
“One of the things it means is we try to reduce waste by reusing and repairing before recycling, as well as providing the community with more options to recycle products that we can't put into our yellow bin at the moment.”
“Overall we think this is a good document.”
Room to improve
One way the draft could be improved was by adding targets.
“It would be good to see some ambitious targets in there because having actions and goals is one thing, but targets will really help the council to track progress and be accountable to the community.
“We've got a national recovery target of 80% of all waste streams by 2030. The national packaging targets are there, so it'd be nice to see some targets built into the strategy.”
Growing interest in advocacy group
Wollongong residents are passionate about recycling, with Circular Plastics Illawarra attracting all sorts of people since it began in late 2022, after the collapse of the REDcycle program.
“The group is a mix of just concerned citizens who do all sorts of things in their day jobs or their personal lives,” Helen said. “But also quite a few people that are working in the area in local government, state government, federal government, the recycling industry and so on. So I think one thing we are doing is building meaningful connections.”
The founding meeting attracted about 90 people and now a dedicated core group regularly attends meetings, with 15 people turning out for a recent midwinter gathering.
“We had a couple from the Corrimal Rotary Club. They have a very active environment group doing a lot of litter cleanups and so on, so we're very keen to work with them. We had a student from UOW volunteer to help us with a marketing strategy. So that's fantastic.
“There are lots of people who are keen and, as the word spreads, more people are putting their hand up to help.”
This month, as the world marks Plastic Free July, one of the best steps Wollongong locals can take is to give council their feedback on the draft Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy.
“This is an essential service for the community and the council's looking at how they can do it better.
“We are generating more waste all the time. So as a community, we need to think about how we can reduce, reuse and recycle more of it. The council is reaching out for feedback – it’s important that we have our say.”
Action Plan for Plastic Free July
1. Give feedback on the draft Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2024-2034. Send feedback to Council via their online form. Helen says: “The more positive responses they get the better, particularly on soft plastics and circular economy strategies. Overall we think this is a good document that reflects many of the ideas that we’ve discussed and put forward in other submissions.” Responses are due by 23 July.
2. Help out at Lake Illawarra Microplastics Survey and Clean Up, 18 July. Head to Eugene Von Guerard Reserve for a day of environmental action! In association with the Australian Microplastics Assessment Project (AUSMAP), Wollongong City Council is cleaning up plastics in Lake Illawarra. This is a free event, but you need to book here. “If you haven’t done one of these surveys before, it’s interesting and fun to do,” Helen says.
3. Join a group. Locally, you can sign up to the Circular Plastics Illawarra group to receive their newsletter and attend regular meetings at UOW. It’s also not too late to sign up to the global Plastic Free July movement! Get tips and tricks on refusing single-use plastics here.