25 August 2009
The Keep Australia Beautiful mission is to
encourage the Australian community to protect and conserve the
natural environment through individual actions.
And while this is Keep Australia Beautiful Week, Devonport City
Council embraces this mission every day with a key strategic goal
to live lightly on our environment and many strategies in place to
achieve it.
The theme for this year's Keep Australia Beautiful Week is "Waste
Lives On". When Council was reviewing our recycling services late
last year, the issue stirred the emotions of the community and we
received a very strong and clear message from our residents that
they supported the decision for an improved recycling
service.
Devonport City Council in partnership with the other north west
councils will introduce a collection service using a 240 litre
wheelie bin. The new bins will make it easier to collect recyclable
materials as they no longer have to be sorted or bundled, it will
be easier to put out for collection being a wheelie bin rather than
the current crate and residents will have double the capacity. The
new service contracted to Veolia Environmental Services will
commence the week of 14 September.
Devonport City Council proudly supports the Keep Australia
Beautiful program. "Council will highlight the potential benefits,
both environmentally and economically, of this new service to its
residents with ongoing information provided to reinforce the "Waste
Lives On" message", Mayor Lynn Laycock said.
When you consider that packaging can take hundreds or even
millions of years to break down, depending on where it ends up, it
really makes you realise that recycling these materials is vitally
important to our environment. A glass bottle can take up to 1
million years, a plastic bottle around 450 years, an aluminium can
up to 200 years and a printer cartridge thrown into landfill can
take up to 450 years to decompose.
"Devonport residents have a strong sense of 'home' and ensuring
the whole city remains sustainable well into the future is of prime
importance to us", the Mayor said.
To achieve this it's not just up to Council. It's up to all of us.
Individually, schools and businesses are all encouraged to make a
difference.
Spirit of Tasmania also helps 'Keep Australia Beautiful' by
recycling paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium cans, milk cartons and
plastic within the terminals and offices.
Recyclables are collected by the Gleecraft Recycling Centre which
is the self-help division of Glee Club Inc. This not-for-profit
organisation is a service provider for people with
disabilities.
By recycling, Spirit of Tasmania supports a section of the
community who need jobs and a little extra support. Currently,
paper recycling is being trialled on board with the hope to
increase recycling efforts to include glass, plastic, aluminium and
milk cartons.
The twin ships undergo extensive work in dry dock every two years
which produce savings in fuel costs and a reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions.
Underwater paint coatings are removed and replaced with a smooth
silicon paint designed to deliver a significant annual reduction in
fuel use.
As such an iconic Australian tourism provider, Spirit of Tasmania
help by doing what they can to ensure mainlanders enjoy Tassie's
pristine environment.
Keep Australia Beautiful Week is a reminder that it's about the
community working together for a common goal. When that happens,
anything is possible.
-ends-
Further information:
Tricia Alford
Devonport City Council
Phone: 0415 466 402
Soniya Fernandez, Corporate Communications Coordinator
Spirit of Tasmania
03 9206 6220
0438 393 898
saf@spiritoftasmania.com.au
