September 2007 Issue

AWARE
PO Box 975
South Melbourne
Victoria 3205
AWARE website home
Gayle Seddon Maldives surf break Waste in the Maldives Rubbish cart in the Maldives Street cleaner in the Maldives Litter in Maldives streets

On location in the Maldives!

As many of you may already know I have had to step down from the position of President in the past month to take up the opportunity to travel to the Maldives and work for 3 months with Live & Learn Environmental Education International on the development of a National Waste Education/Public Awareness and Media Campaign. My role is to manage the development of media coverage via Television, Radio and Print media. It’s a very exciting project and as I travel I take all of the great inspiration and ideas of AWARE members with me.

As I sit here in my apartment in Malé which is close to the equator, very hot and humid and with the streets full of rubbish I think of you all back home in the cool and clean environment and reflect on how far we have come in our understanding and development of Waste Management and Education.

It is always a real eye opener when one travels to a country where the waste management practices and infrastructure are very poor. I find myself considering how fortunate we are in Australia to have such advanced government waste management policies and programs. In the Maldives the production of waste is a huge problem and up until the 2004 Tsunami it was not seriously dealt with. Many islands dumped rubbish on the beach and burnt it. Now there are Waste Management Collection Centres being established to reduce the risk of waste such as cans holding water and therefore disease carrying mosquito larvae.

There are no rates paid and so no rubbish bins on the streets and litter and especially plastic bags are everywhere! There are no real recycling facilities and so designing a campaign with recycling in the mix is also problematic. De-salination is used to provide drinking water as the freshwater lens of the main island is very polluted. A mountain of PET bottles accumulate and are a potential goldmine, most rubbish is taken to a “rubbish island” and either burnt or used as fill to create new land.

However there are some positives, women sweep the streets in the early mornings and entrepreneur rubbish collectors (see photos attached) collect the household rubbish using hand held carts and take it to the waste centre where it is shipped to the rubbish island of Thilafushi.

The big debate in government circles is the move towards Waste to Energy and so all the rubbish would be burnt to provide power and reduce the dependence on diesel which is currently burnt by the main energy company. The decision is a matter of cost and supply. The high calorific value of the PET is a key factor in the decision to invest in capital W2E plant infrastructure. It’s a dilemma we face as educators in implementing the Waste Hierarchy and I guess it’s one that we need to evaluate on the basis of all the environmental, social and economic considerations, after all this is the meaning of sustainable development.

In the meantime our illustrious Judith Alcorn is standing in as acting President until the AGM in October. I will be heading off to India after the Maldives to a beautiful meditation retreat in Mt Abu Rajisthan and then back to OZ in later November so if you would like to stay in touch drop me a line on the email ecochamp@gmail.com or check out my blog ecochamp.blogspot.com for updates on the journey.

All the best and keep your networks alive with AWARE.

Gayle Seddon
AWARE President

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What’s coming up

BATE (Business And The Environment
ThemeVarious themes. Guest presentations and networking.
DateLast Thursday of every month, 8.30–10.30am
Where60L Building (usually)
CostFREE
ContactAllan Klindworth – allan.klindworth@maunsell.com
Greywater Information Sessions for Monash Residents
ThemeConducted by the Alternative Technology Association (ATA),
 these information sessions will assist residents to set up and use a
 greywater system effectively.
DateWednesday 29th August and Thursday 13th September, 7.00–9.00pm
WhereMonash Civic Centre, 293 Springvale Rd Glen Waverley
WhoMonash residents
CostFREE – with door prizes to be won.
ContactMonash City Council, Visit website
 Ph (03) 9518 3690, Bookings essential, seating is limited.
Keep Australia Beautiful Week
ThemeMobile phone and cartridge recycling, energy saving
DateMonday 27th August to Sunday 2nd September
WhereVarious locations
CostFREE
ContactLara Shannon on (03) 9592 4001 or visit www.kab.org.au
Sustainable House Day
ThemeCool Homes, Hot Ideas!
DateSunday 9th September
WhereVarious locations around Victoria
Cost$5.00 to visit an open house
Contactwww.solarhouseday.com
AWARE Annual General Meeting & “Conversations for Change“ Dinner
ThemeThink Global – Eat Local! Food Miles Explored
DateTuesday 11th September, 5.30pm–9.00pm
Where100 Mile Café, Level 3, Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe St, Melbourne
Cost$45 members / $60 non-members
RSVPCOB Friday 7 September
ContactJudith Alcorn – Judith.Alcorn@mwmg.vic.gov.au
Sustainable Development Local Government 2007 Conference
ThemesThe conference focuses on reducing the carbon footprint, water sustainability,
 developments in the built environment, and waste initiatives within local
 government.
DateTuesday 11th September – Wednesday 12th September, 9.00am–5.00pm
WhereHilton on the Park, 192 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Cost$45 members / $60 non-members
ContactDenise McQueen at Hallmark Editions on (03) 8534 5021
 or email denise.mcqueen@halledit.com.au
Waste & Recycle Conference 2007
DateMonday 10th September – Friday 14th September
WhereFremantle, Western Australia
Cost$45 members / $60 non-members
Contactwww.wasteandrecycle.com.au
An Audience with Al Gore
ThemeThinking Green – Economic Strategy for the 21st Century
DateFriday 21st September, 12.00–12.30pm
WhereSofitel Melbourne
Cost$1,000
Contactwww.globalbusinessforum.com.au
National Water Week
ThemeWater for Life
Date21st – 27th October
WhereVarious locations
Cost$1,000
Contactwww.nationalwaterweek.org.au
National Recycling Week
ThemeWater for Life
Date12th – 18th October
WhereVarious locations
Contactwww.planetark.com.au
RACV Energy Breakthrough
ThemeExciting Human Powered Vehicle Challenge for
 Primary and Secondary School Students
Date22nd – 27th November
WhereMaryborough
Contactwww.racvenergybreakthrough.net
 Its 8th year as a Waste Wise Event
Enviro ’08 Conference
ThemePromoting Sustainable Practices
DateMonday 5th May – Thursday 8th May 2008, 8:00am–5:00pm
WhereMelbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre
Contactwww.enviroconvention.com.au
 or email info@enviroconvention.com.au
Waste – The Social Context
ThemeSocial, environmental and economic implications of waste management
Date11th – 15th May 2008
WhereEdmonton, Alberta, Canada
Contactwww.ewmce.com
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Making the switch

Climate Change … are you sick
of all the hot air?

Fay Loveland, Education Officer, Metropolitan Waste Management Group

If you’re feeling environmentally sensitive, ‘Making the Switch’, a new weekly half-hour show on Channel 31, will sustain you with the answers you need, giving you practical advice about how we as ordinary Australians can make a difference.

Tune in 9.30pm every Monday – it could change your world. ‘Making the Switch’, 9.30pm Mondays on C31.

Fay Loveland made a guest appearance on ‘Making the Switch’ on the 16th July episode. She was interviewed with Teresa Day (VAEE coordinator) and together they promoted the use of modern cloth nappies over disposable nappies. (Fay’s going on Maternity leave from Aug 31st and Teresa has a 3-month old daughter so they are both have a bona fide interest in this topic).

Other stories covered by ‘Making the Switch’ include:

Do you have a sustainability event or project happening in the next few weeks that you’d like to promote on television? GV Media (the people behind ‘Making the Switch’) are very keen to hear from viewers with ideas for TV-friendly stories along Sustainability Themes. Pitch them your suggestions.

Contact Lisa Corduff lisa@gvmedia.com.au
Visit www.makingtheswitch.com.au" and download segments from earlier episodes to see the types of stories they cover… follow the Archive link.

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The use of recycling chutes in high rise buildings

Kathleen Esdaile, Green Office Consulting Manager, Going Solar

I recently assisted an architect with his waste management plan for a high rise residential building located in Melbourne.

I was impressed and slightly taken back by the architect’s commitment to waste management and desire to provide an easy and efficient system.

His overseas experience certainly gave him a head start on systems available to aid waste separation and disposal in high rises, namely the use of chutes for both recycling and landfill.

So armed with the challenging task of finding more information on buildings using chutes for recycling, we soon realised that such systems do not commonly exist Down Under, if at all! I learnt that new high rise developments, such as Dockland’s Buildings still used individual wheelie bins for their recycling but some buildings did feature a chute for landfill waste with a rotary feeder system connected to a compactor.

We continued our research because we believe that placing a separate system down in the building basement for recycling will deter many residents from carrying recyclables from their apartment, down the lift, to the basement, filled with messy, liquid induced and heavy bottles, cans and last night’s dinner containers.

The alternative of providing numerous wheelie bins on each floor was just too much for the architect! Imagine the aesthetics issue!

So, cutting a long story short, we decided to be brave and make provision for both a landfill chute and a recycling chute, with measures in place for reducing breakages and noise – two common barriers of this system. We also decided to have a separate glass collection as unfortunately, the chute system is just not designed to take glass falling from high levels into a wheelie bin. Even chute manufacturers overseas discourage glass entering recycling chutes.

Let’s hope there is a suitable chute/pulley-system available one day for people in high rise buildings, to dispose of their waste responsibly and easily, including glass!

Courtesy of the Sovereign Apartments and Waste-tech, you may find the following information useful:

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AWARE Members Update

Welcome to our new members and a big thanks to the ongoing support from our regular members and sponsors. A very special thanks to our sponsors whose support is essential for producing the AWAREness Journal each year. Many of these organisations have been supporters for a number of years and will hopefully continue to assist us in producing future editions.

As you know, all memberships were due for renewal on 1st July. We’ve received many renewals with a number still to come. We haven’t removed members from our distribution lists yet but if you’re not on the list below, please renew ASAP or contact stan@eedge.com.au.

So who is AWARE I hear you ask? Here’s the latest list of sponsors and current members…

AWARE
PO Box 975, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205 www.aware.asn.au


Members: Corporate member = Corporate member



Stan Vermeeren
AWARE Member Support – stan@eedge.com.au

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