Who said recycling is boring?

When addressing environmental care issues, there is no doubt about the importance of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra. Most of the garbage we produce, ends up in landfills, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, which cooperate to climate change (WWF Australia 2016). The key then, is to make people change their habits, encouraging them to throw away less garbage. But how to make it possible?

The Randwick City Council , Waverley and Woollahra Municipal Councils found a smart way to promote recycling. They are organising a free joint event which will be held on June 4th 2017. The activity is a ‘Community open day at the Recycling Centre’. To make it more entertaining, the hook is a sausage sizzle and a tour of the Recycling Centre.

The tour is intended to make the community “learn more about household problem wastes and why it’s important to dispose them properly, requesting them to bring items such as household batteries, paint, fluoro tubes and globes, motor and other oils for recycling” (Randwick City Council 2017). The project is a NSW EPA Waste Less, Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy.

It is satisfying to know that two weeks in advance the event is sold out, what not only demonstrates that community involvement in councils projects is necessary, but also that usually there will be a positive reaction from this. Otherwise, i think that without government- community partnerships this type of initiatives wouldn’t be possible.

The role that the councils are taking could define them as adaptive institutions, which as Dovers (2001) stated, are required for achieving sustainability. In fact, by the implementation of the open day at the Recycling Centre, they are displaying Inclusiveness, one of the five key principles of adaptive institutions (Dovers 2001, p .13). Hence, having more institutions like this will help on tackling sustainability.