Wollongong City Council partners with Green Connect to keep parks clean

Over the summer Wollongong City Council partnered with local not-for-profit social enterprise - Green Connect - to trial two exciting new projects to keep their beaches, parks and foreshore areas clean.

The first project saw Council expand the trial of yellow-lidded recycling bins with approximately 150 yellow bins installed across an additional 13 Wollongong parks and public spaces. Originally starting back in October 2021 with the introduction of the yellow-lidded bins to Thirroul and Stanwell Park foreshore areas, the trial aims to get a better understanding of community behaviour with recycling in public spaces.

As part of the trial, Green Connect staff have been measuring the contamination rate of yellow-lidded bins. It’s an important step as this data will helps to understand how the community is behaving now, and to guide future recycling education programs.

The second project saw 27 Green Connect staff switch uniforms and join the Council team. Over the summer, the new recruits worked in parks and foreshore areas to keep natural areas clean and tidy.

The 27 extra Council staff worked alongside Council’s well-established foreshore crews to support staff caring for and maintaining these well-used spaces over the peak summer period.

Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle advises “Over the past year or so, COVID-19 presented an opportunity to re-evaluate and come up with new ideas to target waste and clean our public spaces to care for our community.

“Green Connect is a fantastic local not-for-profit that works to solve two of the biggest problems in the Illawarra – unemployment and waste and it’s been a privilege to work closely on these two new exciting projects.

“Working together we hope to educate our community when it comes to waste in public spaces. We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m optimistic that we have the staff and strong partnerships that are needed to make a difference.”

Green Connect General Manager Kylie Flament said that the Green Connect staff received support from Council and the broader community.

“The 27 staff who worked with Council are all former refugees or young people who might have otherwise struggled to find jobs. They’ve received beautiful feedback from the community with people coming up to say thank you and that they’re really happy. Some of our staff didn’t previously have that connection to the community so it’s great to see this positive response,” Flament said.

“Green Connect is passionate about both social outcomes and environmental outcomes. Previously we worked with Council managing waste for big events such as Viva la Gong and Australia Day. With COVID-19 cancelling these programs, Council decided to redirect our work over to their parks which are very busy over summer.”

One of the biggest findings so far from the yellow-lidded recycling bin trial in public spaces, is that although the Wollongong community is excellent at recycling at home, they are not doing well when  out and about.

Flament adds “the issue with a high contamination rate is that the contents can’t be recycled and has to go to landfill. Our contamination rate at the moment is averaging about 44% and we need to reduce that by a lot to make public place recycling possible long-term.

“Dirty cardboard containers and food waste are the most common mistaken item found in yellow bins. We’ve even found whole burgers tossed in the recycling.”

For now, Council’s goal is to understand how their community is behaving with the new yellow-lidded recycling bins. Following the trial results, they will use this information to look at ways of educating the community on what can and can’t go in the red and yellow bins.

Doyle notes “we’ve given our community the tools to get started with the new recycling bins. Our next step is to share knowledge and educate people on how to use them.

“Council’s aim is to make it as easy as possible for community members visiting our parks, beaches and foreshore areas to do the right thing.”

Image top: Wollongong Council keeping their beaches, parks and foreshore areas clean; Image above: Wollongong City Council Pare Mo Bellambi Beach. Image courtesy Wollongong City Council