Jabiru recycling brings gold

West Arnhem Regional Council Jabiru Community Service Manager Ian Lindsay receiving the 2014 Tidy Towns Resource Recovery Award from Environment Minister Peter Chandler, Community Services Minister Bess Price and East Arnhem Regional Council President Banambi Wunungumurra.

THE West Arnhem Regional Council (WARC) has taken out the Australian Tidy Towns Resource Recovery Award for the Northern Territory in 2014 – yet again.

WARC Chief Executive Officer Brian Hylands congratulated Service Manager Ian Lindsay and the works crew for taking out the recycling gong for a record seven years out of the past eight.

“The award-winning efforts of our Council works crew here in Jabiru make a direct difference to the amount of waste going into landfill,” Mr Hylands said.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Darwin on Saturday, Keep Australia Beautiful Northern Territory CEO Heimo Schober said West Arnhem Regional Council’s recycling record in Jabiru was unprecedented.

“Jabiru has consistently won this award because they have a three-tiered recovery system, with a residential kerbside collection, a voluntary drop-off recycling system, and extensive sorting at the landfill site,” Mr Schober said.

WARC was setting a recycling standard in Jabiru for other Northern Territory communities to follow, he said.

Receiving the award on behalf of Council at the Darwin Convention Centre on Friday 24 October, WARC Service Manager Ian Lindsay thanked the Jabiru works crew for their ongoing recycling efforts at the tip face. 

“When I first arrived in Jabiru eight years ago there was no recycling here at all,” Mr Lindsay said. “There was steel everywhere at the tip being buried. We removed the steel from the waste stream and turned it into recycled material by selling it to Sims Metal. Once Council started on resource recovery we have won the Award nearly every year since.”

Mr Lindsay said Northline freight services in Darwin assisted by providing free backloads of recyclable items.

The desert community of Titjikala won the 2014 Australian Tidy Towns Award for the second year running.

The Tidy Towns awards encourage, motivate and celebrate the achievements of rural and regional communities across Australia.

Indigenous dance group One Mob, Different Country performing at the at the Tidy Towns Awards gala event abiruJon Friday 24 March 2014 at the Darwin Convention Centre.