Welcome to the July edition of the HOW newsletter

Hello everyone,

In this edition, find out about the BYO Container movement, how to provide feedback on Council's draft Waste Wise Events Policy, get recipe ideas for using up stale bread, hear about Council's plan to compost household food scraps and more. 

Plastic Free July – Choose to refuse single-use plastic this July

Plastic Free July challenges us to avoid single-use plastic items, which are designed to be used once then thrown away. You can get involved by saying no to plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway coffee cups, straws or all single-use plastics. Take the challenge for a day, a week or the entire month of July.

While some single-use (disposable) plastic items can be recycled, other single-use plastics take up unnecessary space in landfill or become litter. Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness about the amount of single-use plastic in our lives. It encourages us to create new habits and be part of the solution.

Bring Your Own Containers

Many of us already bring our own reusable shopping bags from home to reduce plastic waste. Did you know many businesses also allow you to bring your own containers?

• Before ordering, explain you would like to use your own container
• Use only clean and sanitised containers which are durable and seal well

Look out for stores displaying the BYO Containers poster or check the listing on the BYO Containers and Trashless Takeaway maps.

DIY Dishwasher tablets

One easy way to reduce packaging waste is to make your own dishwasher tablets! For those that missed Bianca’s (BYO Containers) demonstration at our Food For Thought event last month, here’s how:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of washing soda
• 1 cup of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice

Method:

1. Stir washing soda, baking soda and salt in a bowl
2. Mix in the lemon juice – It will fizz, but this is normal
3. Pack into ice cube trays – You can use the base of a wooden spoon to push it down
4. Wrap the ice cube trays in plastic to prevent crumbs in your freezer and freeze overnight – Clean pre-used plastic packaging is fine
5. Invert the ice cube tray and give a good whack on the bench to loosen the tablets then store in a dry air tight container – So long as they are kept dry they can be kept pretty much indefinitely

Council advocates for Container Deposit Scheme

Container Deposit Schemes (CDSs) in Australia and around the world reduce beverage container litter, ensure the beverage supplier industry takes greater responsibility for its packaging and reward individuals, community groups, sporting clubs and charities for picking up littered beverage containers.

A CDS enables beverage containers to be returned at approved collection points for a deposit after which they are reused, recycled or disposed of appropriately. There is now a CDS in operation or planned in every state and territory of Australia except Victoria. Frankston City Council first established its support for a CDS in September 2017 and wrote to the Victorian Government to advocate for one at this time.

Last month, Council wrote to all Victorian councils to encourage them to advocate for a CDS in Victoria, as well as to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, the Hon Lily D’Ambrosio MP to seek an urgent update on the Victorian Government’s efforts to introduce CDS legislation in Victoria. This follows a resolution at the Council meeting on 23 April 2019.

Draft Waste Wise Events Policy​

Frankston City Council has drafted a Waste Wise Events Policy to help minimise waste and litter at events.

We would love your input to help shape this policy.

The draft Waste Wise Events Policy is available for community feedback until Monday 29 July 2019.

An online feedback form and a copy of the draft Waste Wise Events Policy is available to download from Council’s website.

'Shifting Victoria to a circular economy' issues paper released for comment

The Victorian Government is developing a circular economy policy and action plan for Victoria.

A circular economy continually seeks to reduce the environmental impacts of production and consumption and gain more productive use from natural resources.

The Victorian Government is keen to hear your views about shifting Victoria to a circular economy and has released an issues paper and survey for feedback. The deadline for feedback is Friday 2 August 2019.

Take your E-Waste to a better place

A ban on the disposal of e-waste into landfill commenced this month across Victoria. This means that Victorians now need to dispose of their e-waste (unwanted or broken electronic products with a battery, cord or plug) at e-waste drop-off points.

Recovering e-waste has a number of benefits:

• Reduced landfill
• Less consumption of raw materials to produce electronic products
• Typically less greenhouse gas emissions associated with products made from recycled rather than virgin materials

There are a number of local drop-off locations for mobile phones, batteries and cameras, as well as large e-waste items such as TVs and computers.

Bus ad to remind us to recycle right

When the wrong thing goes in the recycling bin, it is considered contaminated. One of the most common contaminants in household recycling bins is bagged recyclables – plastic bags containing recyclable items. Unfortunately bagged recyclables cannot be recycled.

The below bus advertisement is currently being trialled by Council to remind us to keep our recycling loose before disposing of it in the yellow‐lidded recycling bin.

The bus displaying this recycling ad will run on multiple routes in Frankston from 17 June until 8 September 2019.

Love food, hate waste?

Did you know, each year, Victorian households throw out enough bread, pastry and biscuits to fill six Eiffel Towers (Love Food Hate Waste, 2018)?

What a waste of food and money!

The good news is, a lot of this food waste can be avoided. Here’s how:

Bread

• Avoid over purchasing
• Store in the freezer (so it doesn’t go stale)
• Toast
• Make into breadcrumbs or croutons

Pastry

• Bake with stewed fruit or cheese
• Freeze excess pastry (if it hasn’t already been frozen)

Biscuits

• Crumble over ice-cream
• Use to make a cake base

Frankston City to compost your food scraps

From October this year, Frankston City Council residents will be able to dispose of food scraps in their green waste bin, with the collected food and garden waste turned into compost for farmers.

Frankston City is an early adopter of the composting scheme alongside councils like Bass Coast Shire and Glen Eira City Council, who have seen a significant increase in household waste diverted from landfill.

The service will be fortnightly, with more information to be provided over the coming months.

Composting and worm farming workshops coming soon..

The final touches are being made to the next 6 monthly calendar of Greening Our Future events, including the ever popular composting and worm farming workshops – if you don’t eat it, your garden will!

Watch out for details of these inspiring, enjoyable events on Council’s website, in the ‘Community News’ section of local newspapers and in Council outlets.

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