litterALLY Edition 30
From the Litter Champion
Welcome to litterALLY, the eNews for anti litter campaigners.
In this edition we feature another two Litter Prevention Officers (LPOs) appointed last year by Victorian
Councils - namely Travis at Manningham City Council and Ron's shared role at Wellington and East Gippsland
Shires.
Other articles include Hard Rubbish Tip Off - an example of great informational communications to make the
job easier - and Mosaic Façade Eliminates Graffiti is a must read, about a fantastically successful
community art project that eliminated graffiti from a Bentleigh underpass.
Read further for a fee training opportunity, funding for organic waste management, and for some lucky ones, a
round up of a few conferences coming up.
In all that you do on the litter front - keep good records, take lots of photographs, write up what you've learnt and then tell me about it! We would love to feature your achievements in litterALLY.
Candyce Presland
VLAA Litter Champion
Project managed by Sustainability Victoria
Every Litter Bit Counts
Litter Prevention Officer Travis Finlayson with and Manningham’s Litter Watch response fleet.
Making a difference
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
As in many municipalities, illegal rubbish dumping is a major issue for Manningham's environmental services,
with garden waste, household goods and commercial waste the most prevalent types.
The Council responds to 700 complaints for dumped rubbish each year, with the clean up costing around $500
per incident - that's over $350,000 annually. Cigarette butt litter around Manningham's local strip shopping
centres is also a significant problem. Butts were the most commonly found item during the recent Clean Up
Australia Day - Business Clean Up event held in late February.
Travis is no stranger to the problem, having been Manningham's Local Laws Officer before stepping into the LPO
role.
During the early stages he will be researching and investigating the breadth of rubbish dumping and other
littering in the area, and of course will be looking for innovative ways to reduce their incidence.
Travis said, "The local community takes great pride in the appearance of its parks and streets. People are
always disappointed when they see illegal dumping or excessive litter, and I am looking forward to making a
difference."
Litter Watch
Travis said that he aims to provide a proactive and responsive litter enforcement service, and educate the
community on its litter abatement and recycling options, for example through promotion of the hard waste
collection service.
A key tool is Manningham's Litter Watch hotline 1800 NO LITTER (1800 665 448), which acts as both a portal
for community litter reporting, and a way to educate hotline users about the litter issue.
The Litter Watch campaign provides notifications and investigative leads for follow up.
With litter response car keys in hand, at times Travis will be able to respond almost immediately, giving him the
best possible chance to identify illegal dumpers and litterers themselves.
Contact: [email protected]
Mosaic façade eliminates graffiti
Stationary Faces – graffiti proof mosaic facades at Patterson Road underpass in Bentleigh, Melbourne.
How art, recycling and community engagement created an underpass you WANT to walk through.
The problem
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
Artist Pamela Irving uses the Patterson Road railway underpass in Bentleigh almost every day to get to her
studio, as do many other citizens going about their daily business.
In contrast to many of Melbourne's underpasses, this one is a joy to walk through.
Once suffering the plight of continuous tagging and less than artistic graffiti, Pamela decided to use her creative
skills and an extensive network of schoolteacher contacts to try out a remedy.
"I got tired of seeing graffiti and tags come back over an over," Pamela said. "The public purse must have been
spending a fortune on painting over the graffiti, only to see it back again the next day."
The solution
A specialty on Pamela's part is mosaics, so she applied for an Arts Victoria grant to create a mosaic on the
underpass walls.
Pamela explained, "I am an incessant collector of objects and materials that can be recycled into art works. This
behaviour is very suited to making mosaics, because pieces of glass, tile and stone are all over the place, and
it's all free."
With a grant secured, Pamela got in touch with her teacher colleagues to recruit participants and contributors to
the underpass project.
"Thanks to all those teachers who helped me promote the project to students and parents, we ended up with
750 people working on or contributing to the mosaic façade, and although we were targeting kids and teens,
ages ranged from 3 to 83."
The outcome
Since completion, the Patterson Road underpass has been graffiti free.
This is not just a significant success - the project demonstrates the 'broke window syndrome', signs of neglect
breed hotspots for antisocial behaviour. As we know, just like litter, gratuitous graffiti is a prime indicator of
neglect.
The Patterson Road mosaic project began in May 2011, and had its formal opening in February 2012.
As the mural was installed on property under the control of Metro Trains the project was conducted under Keep
Australia Beautiful Victoria's Stationeers program to gain access to the site.
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
Pamela Irving – Patterson Road underpass under transformation.
Hard Waste Tip Off
The right way
How Moreland City Council makes best use of its rolling annual hard waste collection
service with a brochure campaign.
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
A hard problem
The hard waste collection may be a highlight of the year, but your best efforts can
be foiled too easily without effective communications.
For one thing, hard waste collections are infrequent, just once or twice a year. And
when it does come, some residents can be quite indiscriminate about what hard
rubbish they put on the verge, and how much of it.
More than a promotion
Moreland City Council's Annual Hard Waste Collection brochure is a good example of
covering the bases.
The brochure is concise, clear, colourful and importantly, packed with information
that gives residents other options for disposing their hard rubbish.
For instance, one section suggests giving to charities, and provides details for a
number of local ones, including the Phoenix Fridge Project.
The opportunity to advertise landfill and transfer station sites isn't lost either.
Other nice touch is a note about how to report hard rubbish scavengers.
The generic brochure comes in six versions, matching Moreland's six hard waste
collection schedules and zones.
Simplicity
The brochure's "Three Easy Steps" take residents through their preparation.
These aim to contain those unmanageable volumes of hard rubbish that sometimes
occur, and make sure only collectable items are put out. With simple photographs
and lists, it's pretty clear what is and is not acceptable.
Moreland's Environmental Education Officer, Tammy Sherar, said that around 2,000
tonnes of goods and materials are sent to landfill each year during the hard waste
collection.
"We refine the hard waste brochure each year to reflect changes to the service,"
Tammy said.
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
"It seems highly effective. People take advantage of the hard rubbish collection
service, and most residents do try to follow the rules about what, where and how
much you can put out for collection."
The wrong way Contact: [email protected]
Training for free
Want to learn how to effectively reduce litter and recycle within your community's public place areas? Then the
Away From Home and Events Recycling training program is for you.
Since the Packaging Stewardship Forum developed its Away From Home and Events Recycling course in 2007,
more than 520 state and local government officers, waste service providers and event industry professionals
have taken up this exclusive and free one day training program.
The course covers theory and operations for managing litter and recycling in public places, public venues and at
events.
Suitable for learning the trade from scratch or just keeping up with the times, the aim is to give the knowledge,
understanding and confidence to implement effective litter and recycling systems.
As quoted in the training course flyer, "Everyone involved in managing waste at events should attend this course
- it is practical, relevant and very informative"
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
When: Thursday May 17, 2012.
Where: Melbourne.
Registrations by Thursday 10 May
ONLY 15 PLACES - GET IN QUICK!
Money for mulch
Boost for regional organic waste recovery and recycling.
Along with the Victorian Government's $3 million to help rural councils meet their environment protection needs
for landfills, another other $5.5 million for organic waste recovery and recycling in rural and regional Victoria is
poised for action.
The funding package includes $2.5 million for a regional organics strategy to be led by Sustainability Victoria in
partnership with Regional Waste Management Groups and local governments to provide support for new, stateof-the-art systems for waste recovery and organic composting.
Another $3 million will support Regional Waste Management Groups to fund and deliver priority waste
minimisation projects in their areas.
Conferences around the world
alishakriti.wordpress.com
If you're lucky enough to have a budget for conferences in far flung places, or you just like to dream, here is a
round up of some international and domestic opportunities.
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
FRIGATE
BAY
Caribbean
6th Caribbean Environmental Forum and the 16th Annual Wider Caribbean Waste Management Conference.
Organised by the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute and the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis,
through
the
Ministry
of
Health.
When: 21 to 25 May 2012. Info: www.cef.org.lc
AMSTERDAM
Netherlands
2nd
Annual
Waste
Management
Forum
"Network with the top professionals focusing on waste management, and join the field trip to Amsterdam's WTE
plant". Includes speakers from the "Top 10 Most Successful European Cities in Municipal Waste Management
according
to
the
European
Green
City
index".
When: 22 to 24 May 2012. Info: http://energy.flemingeurope.com/solid-waste-management
NEW
6th
FOREST
International
Conference
England
on
Waste
Management
UK
and
the
Environment
The conference "will be of interest to researchers and practitioners from industry and governmental
organisations involved with the management, treatment and impact of waste on the environment and society as
a
whole".
Organised
by
Wessex
Institute
of
Technology,
UK
When: 4 to 6 July 2012. Info: www.wessex.ac.uk/12-conferences
ADELAIDE
South
Australia
ENVIRO 2012 - 7th Australian Conference and Exhibition Integrating Business and the Environment
Promoted as "Australia's largest meeting of business and the environment", ENVIRO 2012 is organised by the
Waste
Management
Association
of
Australia
and
the
Australian
Water
When: 24 to 26 July 2012. Info: www.enviroconvention.com.au
Level 28 Urban Workshop 50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Vic 3000
P (03) 8626 8761
F (03) 9663 1007
[email protected]
www.litter.vic.gov.au
Association.