Inaugural waste conference held in Ballarat

The conference, which focuses on measuring the success of various waste education and sustainability initiatives, is held at the Mercure Ballarat.

The two-day event includes presentations, project updates and hands-on workshops from Sustainability Victoria, Grampians Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group, Metropolitan Waste and the Resource Recovery Group.

Experts focused on broad issues such as project management in waste education and litter, monitoring and evaluation tools and business and industry projects.

Sustainability Victoria chief executive Stan Krpan said the conference had received strong support and expects it to become an annual event, with more than 90 representatives across the state, including several officials from the New South Wales Environment Protection Agency.

Mr Krpan said a key focus point was the amount of recyclable waste that is still put in rubbish bins and generally sent to landfill sites.

“One of the messages is about communities being aware of recycling and what goes into individual (rubbish)  bins.

“Our research tells us that 20 per cent of stuff in rubbish bins is still recyclable.

“A lot of people also put recycling in plastic bags.

“We call it contamination when you put the wrong things in the wrong bin, which leads to some companies being unable to process that.”

“(But) Victorians are great recyclers on global terms – 90 per cent of us have access to kerbside collection.”

Earlier this week, results from the Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index Report showed that Victoria’s total litter count continues to decline, with a 27 per cent drop compared to last year.

The total litter count is now 47 per cent lower than the national average.

Friday’s conference focuses on hands on workshops around waste education, litter and illegal dumping and the status of current state government projects.