Emily Brommel - Augusta Margaret River Times - Friday, June 12, 2009
Waste co-ordinator Phil Armener and officer Barrie Naylor with recycling waste at Witchcliffe. PICTURE: DEREK POOL
STATISTICS from the Davis Road Waste Facility in Witchcliffe show the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River has an unusually high amount of packaging and glass waste due to the tourism and wine industries, according to officer Barrie Naylor.
However locals were very enthusiastic about greening their households, with 76 to 80 per cent of residents participating in wheelie bin rubbish recycling.
Two new initiatives will soon be up and running at the Davis Road tip to specifically target the amount of packaging and glass waste. We've concentrated on packaging because thafs the major waste stream. The major waste stream in a tourism area is packaging, and 60 per cent of that is glass, Mr Naylor said. The community and the waste authority are very enthusiastic about the target of zero
waste.
A $200,000 glass crusher is scheduled to arrive at the end of June, which could see neighbouring councils like Busselton, Manjimup and Capel bring their glass to Witchcliffe to be recycled. Mr Naylor said the crusher was bought because it wasn't sustainable to truck glass to Perth, and then train it to Adelaide where it was melted down and turned into more bottles.
Instead the machine would be used in Witchcliffe to crush glass to the consistency of sand, which would then be sold companies to use for pipe embedment. Mr Naylor said this would cut down on transport, allow the glass to be re-used locally and prevent 800 tonnes of sand being extracted from the earth.
The crusher should also make enough sand for the council to sell elsewhere.
The Shire of Augusta-Margaret River is one of the most proactive recycling units in the whole country, Mr Naylor told the Times. The people are very conscious of recycling here, which is great.
Another new machine soon to be up and running is a baler, which can bale paper, plastic and aluminium cans at up to 50 tonnes per hour. The council has recycled 865.17 tonnes of rubbish in the past 10 months through the wheelie bin recycling program.
Just over 20 per cent of that amount was contaminated, which Mr Naylor believed was due to alack of user education.
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