Casey residents lead the way with waste

CASEY residents are some of the best recyclers in Victoria.
Statistics from the Local Government Data Collection 20032004 Waste Management Services survey revealed that households in the City of Casey were above the state average when it came to recycling, disposing 39.6 per cent of their waste the right way, compared with the state average of 33.5 per cent.
Cranbourne MP Jude Perera congratulated Casey residents for making a concerted effort to help the environment.
“The effort of households in the City of Casey to divert waste to recycling has kept tonnes and tonnes of waste away from landfill,” Mr Perera said
“Across Victoria, 537,000 tonnes of containers, paper, cardboard and green organics were diverted from landfill in 200304 an increase of 15 per cent, or more than 70,000 tonnes, on the previous year.
“This means substantial environmental benefits for Victoria including savings of 7,411 megalitres of water in a year nearly 3,000 Olympic swimming pools and over 276,013 tonnes of greenhouse gases, which is the same as removing 46,003 cars off the road for a year.”
Mr Perera said the City of Casey attributed the increased recycling to the uptake of bestpractice collection systems generally featuring smaller bins for rubbish, a larger recycling bin and a separate bin for green organic waste.
“Total recycling of all waste in households, industry and building construction has now risen to an overall rate of 53 per cent.
“Many councils are in the process of implementing improvements that will see the amount of recycled materials mined from their communities grow further. However, we need to do more and there is still substantial room for improvement. Clearly, Victoria’s recycling rate for households at 33.5 per cent is still well below recycling rates in our industry and building construction.
“Efforts need to be made by households to stop our community becoming a throwaway society and control excessive consumption.
“Simple actions such as reusing plastic containers and glass jars for food storage can make a difference,” Mr Perera said.