Sustainable Living Blacktown E-Newsletter - Blacktown City Council

 

This month in Sustainable Living Blacktown:

• fabulous waste-free festivities
• summer safety – home and away
• nominate an environmental citizen
• save water and money in your business
• love our waterways – recorded webinar
• quick ways to cool your home
• help improve waterway health and habitat.

Are you planning your festive season activities?  We have put together some ideas to help your festivities be more sustainable and minimise the additional waste that we tend to generate over the holiday season.

When decorating, consider these ideas to help your holidays be more sustainable:

• a plastic free Christmas party
• eco decorations, e.g. make your own, recycled decorations and use solar lights on a timer
• have your own living Christmas tree.

Try these sustainable gift ideas:

• donate to a charity that helps the community or the environment. You can pick the charity that most suits the person receiving the gift
• make a gift or give an experience
• upcycle old Christmas cards to make new ones
• re-gift a present you received that you think someone else will use more
• wrap presents in alternative materials like newspaper, old tea towels or fabric
• use a tape-less Japanese style of fabric folding. 

Reduce your food waste by:

• planning and organising what you need to buy
• using leftovers in easy and delicious recipes like the ones found here
• composting the unwanted leftovers.  If you don’t already have a compost system, consider purchasing a compost bin, bokashi or worm farm and claim a $25 Council rebate.

Remember, there’s no need to miss a household bin collection during the festive season - we collect waste and recycling bins on public holidays.

Everything you need to know about Blacktown City’s waste and recycling is in our B informed app. You can find information fast, get bin reminders, send us feedback and more. Download the B informed Blacktown City Council app on iPhone or Android. 

Along with fun, family gatherings and holidays, summer can bring extreme situations such as floods, bushfires, storms and heatwaves.

Here are some tips to keep yourself, loved ones and those around you safe this holiday season:

• download the Fires Near Me app for bushfire alerts
• check the Bureau of Meteorology app for up to date storm and extreme weather information
• ensure that you secure your home and vehicles before going out
• look out for your neighbours – neighbours can often be the first to help each other in an emergency
• when it’s hot, visit a cool place such as a shopping centre or library, and check on elderly neighbours to see if they have cold drinks on hand or need anything from the shops.

Watch our Resilient Blacktown series here to learn how you and your family can prepare for disasters and emergencies. Each video in the series provides tips and information on how to be better prepared.

The videos feature local emergency services and community organisations, including:

• State Emergency Service
• Australian Red Cross
• SydWest Multicultural Services
• Fire and Rescue NSW
• Rural Fire Service.

Download the ‘Get Prepared’ app or use the Red Cross Rediplan to start your emergency plan today.

Do you know an outstanding local environmental champion?

Australia Day award applications for 2021 are now open. The award categories include the opportunity to recognise the achievements of local individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the environment.

The categories are:

• Citizen of the Year Award
• Young Citizen of the Year Award
• Community Event of the Year Award
• Environmental Citizen of the Year Award.

Let’s give our environment-focused, high-achieving community members the recognition they deserve! You can nominate a friend, family member, community leader, colleague or even yourself via our online nomination form.

Finalists will be notified prior to Australia Day and the winners will be announced on 26 January 2021 at the Australia Day Awards Presentation.

Applications close 5.30 pm, Friday 8 January 2021.

For further information, contact our Community Events team on 02 9839 6000 or email.

If you are involved in running a business, you know how important it is to save on costs.

Improving water efficiency can help save you money by reducing waste water and trade waste costs. Indirectly, the reduced water use can, where relevant, reduce the need for chemicals and water treatment and can reduce equipment and maintenance costs.

Greater Sydney consumed 567,824 million litres (ML) of water in financial year 2018/19.  Of this, 23% was used by industrial, commercial and government properties.

Improving water efficiency in your business will help the Greater Sydney water supply meet the future needs of our region’s growing population and economy. Taking steps to save water can help demonstrate to your customers and staff that your business is committed to actions that benefit the community and the environment.

Steps you can take in your business to save water and money:

• read your water meter at closing time and before opening to check for leaks
• check fixtures, plant, equipment, pipes and supply lines for leaks and organise repairs promptly
• mop floors and sweep outdoor surfaces instead of hosing them
• compare your water bill with previous bills for the same time period. Unaccountable increases may indicate a leak
• include water efficiency in staff training, position responsibilities and key performance indicators.

Some more ways your business can save water and money.

Stormwater is one of the biggest threats to our waterway health.

Unlike sewage, stormwater is not treated before it enters the waterways. Stormwater collects pollutants such as litter, garden waste, oil and other chemicals as it washes down into street gutters, then into stormwater pipes leading to creeks that flow into rivers and eventually the ocean.

Recently we partnered with Ocean Protect and hosted a webinar to celebrate stormwater awareness week.

In the webinar, we learnt about:

• Blacktown City’s waterways
• animals that live in Blacktown City’s waterways
• impacts of stormwater
• what Council is doing to improve our waterways health
• actions you can take to keep our waterways healthy.

If you missed the webinar you can watch it here.

Be quick! The webinar will only be available for viewing until Friday 31 December.

Is your house ready to keep the hot air out this summer?

On hot days, any gaps and cracks in your home can allow hot air to leak in. You can identify the places where draughts are coming into your home by:

• daylight showing under doors or around window frames
• curtains or blinds moving when it’s windy outside even though the window is closed
• windows that rattle in the frames during storms.

Try these simple ways to keep your home cool:

• to improve sealing, use door snakes and window seals. These can be found at most hardware stores
• block out the sun’s heat by closing the blinds or curtains
• turn on the fan to circulate air
• avoid using the oven during the heat of the day and turn off unused lights and appliances.

Check this website for more tips on keeping your home cool, including energy efficiency information on buying and using air conditioners.

Improving your home’s insulation can make a big difference. It can also be simple and affordable. Find out whether or not your home needs more insulation by downloading the complete guide to home insulation. Or you can also call Australian Energy Foundation for free, independent advice catered for your needs.

Call 1300 236 855 to speak to an Australian Energy Foundation advisor or visit their website.

Did you know our creeks and rivers are home to endangered species like the southern myotis (fishing bat) and the green and golden bell frog? Council has been working to clean up our waterways to improve habitat and increase biological biodiversity.

In the period from April 2019 to March 2020, we:

• collected 3,900 tonnes of accumulated sediment and rubbish from the International Peace Park and Rotary Lake Wetland in Seven Hills
• removed aquatic and riparian weeds, vines and woody weeds that were choking waterways from 90,000m2 of reserves
• planted 3,000 new plants to stabilise Blacktown Creek’s bed and banks at Eddie Aaw Reserve, Prospect.

We can all continue improving the health of our waterways by:

• keeping chemicals, paints and leaves out of gutters and drains
• using a broom to sweep gutters and driveways rather than hosing them
• composting leaves and keeping them out of the gutter
• carrying shopping in reusable bags to reduce plastic bag litter which is a common pollutant found in our waterways
• always putting rubbish in the bin and picking up our dog’s droppings when out and about.

Learn more about the health of our waterways here.

 

Sustainable Living Blacktown is an initiative of Blacktown City Council

Click here for the previous post

 

Sustainable Living - ENewsletter - Blacktown City Council

 

We would love to get your thoughts and feelings about the future of our waste and recycling service in Blacktown City.

Have you wondered why we don’t have a garden waste bin? Would you like to help choose our new waste service?

Currently we collect the bins from more than 122,000 households and we want to make sure we take everyone’s thoughts into account.

We need to change our current waste system for a number of reasons, including:

• NSW Government regulation changes
• limited space in landfills
• our existing contract is expiring
• our new waste and resource recovery strategy is being developed.

As a result of this need to change, we have engaged Woolcott Research and Engagement, an independent market research company, to work with our residents to gain a better understanding of your preferences for the future of waste services in the local area.

We would like you to have your say on this important topic so if you would like to be involved head over to the website that contains important information about our current waste services, as well as potential options for the future delivery of these services.

Do you have problem waste at home that you don’t know how to get rid of?

Our mobile community recycling service is a safe and easy way for you to recycle and safely dispose of household waste, such as:

• old cooking oil, motor vehicle oils and paint
• fluorescent globes and tubes
• smoke detectors, gas bottles, fire extinguishers
• car and household batteries.

Enter your details under the ‘book a free pick up’ tab to receive a collection date and instructions on how to place items for safe and easy collection.

To book, visit the mobile community recycling service.

To find out how to correctly dispose of an item, receive reminders to put out your bins and contact us to book a clean-up, download the B informed app.  Our waste app is your one stop shop for all of this and more, and can be downloaded for Apple and Android devices on this link.

We are proud to announce that we recently won the Local Government NSW Excellence in the Environment Award's Communication, Education and Empowerment category.  This award recognises the engagement by Council with residents on specific issues surrounding climate change.

Our climate change communications program was based on our responding to climate change policy commitments, our risk context, the socio-economic diversity of our community and feedback from residents.

We set out to:

• provide practical information to support actions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change impacts, especially increases in summer heat
• support community resilience, and disaster and emergency preparedness
• cover topics relevant for different audiences and circumstances.

From January 2019 – June 2020, we engaged with:

• 533 local residents through 8 events
• more than 237,000 people through 29 Facebook posts on topics such as saving energy in the home and the ‘Get Prepared’ app
• more than 14,000 people who watched our online videos.

We take this opportunity to thank all of you who participated and engaged with us.  We continue to welcome your ideas on ways that we can work with you to protect our shared environment.  Email us on mailto:ourenvironment@blacktown.nsw.gov.au

National Recycling Week is now in its 25th year and is being held from Monday 9 November to Sunday 15 November 2020.

This year’s theme, ‘Recovery – A future beyond the bin’ invites us to consider the resources that we use and how they can have a second life through reuse and recycling while also reducing virgin resource use.

By reducing our waste and recycling as much as possible, we are able to keep valuable materials out of landfill and provide additional environmental benefits such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the need for new materials.

The key message, ‘check it before you chuck it’, is a great reminder to check if a product and/or its packaging can be recycled before throwing it away. To check if an item is recyclable, look for the Australasian recycling label on the outer packaging of a product or check the B informed app to see how you can correctly dispose of the item.

This year, Planet Ark has put together a collection of resources to help us all better understand the recycling process.  These resources are grouped for workplaces, schools, homes and community use and are available on the National Recycling Week website.

Summer is nearly here.  Have you thought about whether your home is ready for extreme summer heat?

Small changes around the house and yard can reduce summer temperatures, improve your comfort and save energy:

Consider these tips for inside your home:

• installing blinds or hanging block-out curtains to reduce heat coming through windows
• installing insulation in the roof cavity to reduce heat from the roof entering the rooms below.

Consider these tips for outside your home:

• planting trees or shrubs to provide shade to the house and paved areas or using potted plants, which can be a better, portable option if renting
• installing awnings outside windows or setting up shade sails to shelter windows and paved areas that receive hot afternoon sun
• placing potted plants outside windows to create a green screen
• using lighter coloured roofs to reflect heat
• using a light, reflective colour when laying concrete paths and driveways.

Open the windows at night to allow cooler air to flow through the house. First, consider if windows and doors can be safely left open overnight and whether you might need window locks or fly screens. You might need to check with your agent or landlord before making any changes to leased properties. 

More information on keeping your home cool is available here.

 

Did you know that feeding bread to the ducks that live near our local waterways makes them ill?  The natural diet of ducks consists of aquatic plants, insects and grasses. 

Feeding ducks, water birds and fish on bread, chips and crackers causes disease for the wildlife, including malnutrition, liver problems, deformed wings, brittle bones, weak egg shells and fatal lung infections.

Leaving any bread, food and packaging in and around waterways is considered littering, which is a fineable offence. 

The leftover food contaminates the water and encourages vermin which compete with the wildlife for habitat and natural food. Any uneaten bread left in the water also increases the risk of harmful bacteria that can make ducks sick.  

WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service) provides more information on the problems that can occur when we feed ducks and other wildlife.

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of personal protective items such as face masks, gloves and hand sanitiser.

This has led to used face masks, gloves and tissues now being littered across the globe and even being left in shopping trolleys. Face masks contain plastic materials, so they can impact the environment for a long time when littered.

Littering these items can put other community members at risk of contracting COVID-19. It is also illegal and a $450 aggravated littering fine can be issued to anyone who litters these items.

Items that should be placed in your garbage bin include:

• face masks
• tissues
• disposable gloves.

A good tip to reduce plastic and save money is to buy a big bottle of hand sanitiser and refill your small one. The empty plastic hand sanitiser containers that are 7cm in length or longer should be placed in your yellow lidded bin for recycling, which helps to reduce plastic waste going to landfill. Place the pump in the red-lidded garbage bin.  

Find out more on how to reduce litter in the environment, and reducing any litter-related spread of infection, by visiting Keep Australia Beautiful.

How is your vegetable garden looking? Are your old broccoli or lettuce plants growing tall and flowering?

Now is the time to prepare your garden for summer by:

• removing old winter plants and vegetables and placing them in your compost bin
• topping up your garden with compost or decomposed manure, to provide nutrients for your new plants
• mulching lightly to conserve water during summer’s heat
• sowing seeds from your old summer plants for your next crop.

If composting is a mystery to you, we offer composting and worm farming workshops to residents.

November is an ideal time to plant vegetable seeds for summer. Climbing and dwarf varieties of beans, beetroot, carrot, lettuce and corn seeds can be planted directly into your garden bed.

Check here for more planting options for November and to receive regular planting recommendations.

 

Sustainable Living Blacktown is an initiative of Blacktown City Council