Loddon Shire Mayoral Column 20 May 2019
Published on 20 May 2019
REJOOV officially opens
It was a great honour to attend the official opening of the REJOOV salon in Wedderburn last week.
Together with my fellow Councillors, it was fantastic to be part of the opening, which saw more than 100 people attend the event.
The opening of REJOOV salon, the result of an innovative community enterprise, means Wedderburn will once again have a permanent hairdresser after 25 years. Council is proud to be associated with and support this project, including through a $10,000 contribution via its Community Grants program.
I’d like to congratulate everyone involved in this incredible initiative, including the committee and community. The new salon is also the result of an extraordinary amount of hard work and dedication to bring this valuable service to fruition.
Celebrate your sustainable community
The 2019 Keep Victoria Beautiful Tidy Towns – Sustainable Communities Awards are now open to communities in regional areas.
These awards are an opportunity to celebrate and honour your community in helping make a piece of our state sustainable. The awards also highlight and celebrate the positive steps taken by communities in Tidy Town areas to protect and enhance their local environment.
Award categories include environmental sustainability, protection of the environment, litter prevention, active schools, resource recovery and waste management, young leaders, community action and leadership, and more.
To find out more about the Keep Victoria Beautiful Tidy Towns – Sustainable Communities Awards and to enter online, visit www.kvb.org.au/tidy-towns
Entries for the awards close 14 June 2019.
On-farm Infrastructure grants available
The Victorian Government has established the On-Farm Drought Infrastructure Support Grants program for a number of council areas, including Loddon Shire.
This program assists farm businesses to implement on-farm infrastructure to help improve drought management and preparedness.
A grant of up to $5,000 (ex-GST) is available to assist eligible farm businesses with infrastructure improvements. These farm businesses are required to provide at least dollar for dollar matching funding co-contribution.
To find out more, including the guidelines for the infrastructure support grants, go to www.ruralfinance.com.au and click on the link “On-Farm Drought Infrastructure Support Grants” from the front page.
What are the impacts of recycling?
Having discussed specific products and their uses as recycled products, I thought it could be worthwhile mentioning some of the impacts of recycling in Victoria.
According to Sustainability Victoria, the recycling sector is a significant part of the Victorian economy. The Victorian waste and resource recovery industry has an annual turnover of $4 billion, provides 12,000 full time equivalent jobs and involves 590 businesses. There are close to 300 resource recovery centres/transfer stations in the state.
In 2016/17, 67 per cent (8.6 million tonnes) of the 12.9 million tonnes of waste in Victoria was diverted from landfill for recycling.
Sustainability Victoria also notes that not all recycling is sent overseas for processing – in fact, 86 per cent of recycling remained in Victoria.
In terms of local government, in 2016/17 councils across Victoria collected 2.23 million tonnes of kerbside garbage, recyclables and garden organics (equivalent to 353 kilograms per person).
Of this total, 1.18 million tonnes was garbage (equivalent to 186 kilograms per person) and 591,000 tonnes was recyclables (93 kilograms per person). There was also 463,000 tonnes of garden organics (73 kilograms per person).
In the same year, local government collected 103,000 tonnes of hard waste. Eighty per cent (83,000 tonnes) of this hard waste was disposed to landfill and the rest was recovered for recycling. On average, 54 kilograms of hard waste was collected per household in Victoria.
Did you know?
In conjunction with the Loddon Mallee Waste and Resource Recovery Group, Council promotes the use of the Waste Wise Events Trailer to all event organisers holding events in the Loddon Shire. The mobile trailer has 12, 240-litre mobile garbage and recycling bins.
Event organisers can use the trailer free of charge by booking through Council’s Wedderburn office on 5494 1200.
Please note: it is the responsibility of the event organisers to deliver the recycling material and rubbish to the closest Council landfill/recycling facility or transfer station. Council waives the fees to empty the bins at these sites before they are returned.