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THIS IS A PAID ADVERTISING FEATURE BY WAGGA WAGGA CITY COUNCIL
Council News CITY OF WAGGA WAGGA
Issue No: 359
Weekly information from us to you
FIRST PRINTED SATURDAY 21 AUGUST 2021
Keeping the contamination out of FOGO
KEEP IT CLEAN: Gregadoo Waste Management Centre (GWMC) Acting Manager Mathew Windle with some of the items which have contaminated a recent delivery of Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) to the centre.
Wagga Wagga City Council has praised local residents for their help in reducing contamination rates in our Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) waste collection, but there is still room for improvement. The latest monthly kerbside bin audit report on our FOGO waste, conducted in July, showed 94.4 per cent of the waste in the green lid bin was food and garden organics. Gregadoo Waste Management Centre (GWMC) Acting Manager Mathew Windle said this was an improvement of almost 1.4 per cent on the results of the previous audit. “We recently saw a rise in contamination in our FOGO collections, which reached as high as 6.97 per cent in one scoop of material tested on-site. This equates to 60kgs of contamination,” Mr Windle said. “However, after a public education push, we saw this figure drop to 5.6 per cent in our July report. It shows that Wagga Wagga residents care about what goes in their bins and into landfill.” Common contaminants in the green lid bin waste collections are soft plastics such as plastic bags and food packaging, along with other easy-to-recycle items such as bottles and cans. Large chunks of timber and rocks are also being found. The current national standard for green waste contamination is 2.2 per cent. Mr Windle said there are some simple ways residents can help Council to achieve and even exceed that target. “All your food waste can go into the kitchen caddy and green lid bin; just make sure you have removed any wrapping or packaging beforehand,” he said. “Using a netting bag for your fruit and vegetables and buying products in recyclable packaging are just two ways to help reduce waste. Continued inside
Bolton Park new amenities block opens The new amenities block has opened at Wagga Wagga’s Bolton Park and is ready for community use.
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Help us plant 65,000 native seedlings
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Funded by NSW Government in association with AFL NSW/ACT and Council, the project forms part of Council’s Bolton Park Master Plan, designed to develop the precinct into a first-class regional sports hub. “Sport is vital to our community and the new amenities block will assist in drawing more sporting events and visitors to our city,” Mr Creighton said. The upgraded facility provides four change rooms, an AFL Southern NSW Regional Manager Marc Geppert said adult-accessible lay down change facility, public toilets, the new facility will support local AFL competitions and be a canteen, office and storage rooms. much-welcomed asset for female players. Wagga Wagga City Council Strategic Asset Planner Ben “This is a really good facility for the broader sporting Creighton said the new facilities would provide a better community and our local AFL competitions, particularly for experience for users. “It is fantastic to see the new amenities block now open to our female players,” Mr Geppert said. “We’ve never really had the ability for females to get the public,” Mr Creighton said. “The building is a critical piece of infrastructure for people changed in the old building when we had games here. “We have close to 400 girls down here on Wednesday of all ages and abilities playing sport in our local area and will provide the wider community with modern facilities and nights for our youth girls’ competition which plays over an on-site option to take a break without having to leave the winter so to have access to four sets of change rooms is fantastic, they will definitely get some use. grounds.”
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“The office is also a real asset. Normally, we have volunteers sitting at a table under an open marquee out in the middle of the oval taking player registrations in the middle of July.” For more information on the project head to wagga.nsw. gov.au/projects/boltonparkamenities
Free seedling giveaway Ca nc
Date/time: Thursday 26 August, 2pmD-U6pm E T (or until all seedlings are claimed) OL O
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CK Venue: DO Sturt Mall, 135 Baylis St Wagga WaggaWN Limit of 5 seedlings per household.
For more information wagga.nsw.gov.au/biodiversity