The City of Sydney and Unilever Australia cleaned up in the Waste & Recycling category at the NSW Green Globe Awards last week.
NSW Environment Minister Mark Speakman announced the winners of this year’s Green Globe Awards, which recognise environmental excellence, leadership and innovation, on Thursday night (15 October).
In the Excellence in Energy, Water and Waste Efficiency category, the Waste & Recycling Award honours an outstanding initiative demonstrating leadership and innovation in waste avoidance and resource recovery that exceeds mandatory requirements. This year the judges were unable to split the two winners.
The City of Sydney’s Zero Waste program diverted more than two-thirds of domestic waste from landfill last year. The program combines engagement and communication, education, infrastructure and services to drive behaviour change and the take-up of recycling services.
In 2014, the city installed three major waste infrastructure projects to encourage waste diversion:
– four reverse vending machines that give the public rewards for depositing aluminium cans and plastic bottles;
– Sydney’s first underground bin system in Darlinghurst to address waste and dumping issues;
– an onsite e-waste collection service for residents in large apartment buildings.
Unilever Australia was joint winner of the Waste & Recycling category for its achievements in sending no non-hazardous waste to landfill in 2014.
Under the company’s global Sustainable Living Plan, its Australian manufacturing sites were able to totally recycle all non-hazardous waste last year so that none was sent to landfill.
The finalists in the category were:
– Echo Entertainment Group, which owns and operates The Star casino in Sydney, for its achievements to date under its five-year strategy to reduce resource consumption and increase recycling;
– Edge Environment and the Better Buildings Partnership for its waste diversion from office strip-out initiative; and
– Kempsey Shire Council for it mobile community recycling centre.
Full details of all the 2015 Green Globes Awards winners and finalists are on the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage website.
Image shows (L-R): Barry Buffier, EPA NSW with Jackie Kuek, Marketing Campaign Manager, and Hal Dobbins, Zero Waste Coordinator accepting the award for City of Sydney