Council Partnerships

KESAB partnerships with Councils and Waste Contractors across South Australia educate residents on the importance of recycling and waste diversion from landfill in their local communities. These community engagement initiatives underpin South Australia’s focus to achieve a Green and Circular Economy.

A variety of targeted education programs and resources for Councils, education sites, businesses and the general community are developed and delivered by KESAB’s experienced and skilled education staff.

‘Take the Pledge’

Port Pirie Community 'Take the Pledge'
Port Pirie Community 'Take the Pledge'

KESAB continues to work with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield and the City of Unley delivering respective ‘Take the Pledge’ programs.

The Food Recycling Revolution in Port Adelaide Enfield now has over 1 200 registered households (almost 800 this time last year).

An audit of participating households in Port Adelaide Enfield in August 2016 showed a 3-4 fold increase in the amount of food diverted to green organics bins, when compared to the Council 2013 audit results.

An average of 4kg of food scraps were found in the organics bins of people participating in the program.

The City of Unley focus on both increasing general recycling and the diversion of food scraps into the organics bin, showed 1,000 residents have now joined the program; almost doubling the number of households participating at this time last year.

The 2017 audit of organics bins shows residents who Take the Pledge have improved diversion of their food scraps to the organics bin, loosely wrapped in paper and in bio-bags.

The amount of pet waste in organics bins has increased 5 fold with residents choosing compostable kitty litter as recommended in the program education materials.

An inspection of recycling bins from households that have pledged to ‘recycle everything they can’ showed only 5 out of the 100 bins had a small amount of textile, no households had electrical items, and there was no bagged general waste.

About a third of the bins contained a small amount of foam or film plastic indicating that residents are definitely wanting an option to recycle these at the kerb.

Residents from both these Council areas have again received face to face education via a team of door steppers, who speak with residents on their doorstep about the benefits of recycling and waste management.

All participating households are provided with a program sticker to place on their kerbside bin/s, which publicly demonstrates their commitment to others, and encourages others to seek more information about the program and learn how they can reduce the amount of materials going to landfill.

Councils have offered prizes to residents found to be honouring their commitment, identified by random visual bin inspections by KESAB waste auditors.

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield achieved 10 out of a possible 10 winners during the second round of inspections for the competition.

In the City of Unley, there have been 3 rounds of inspections since the program began, with 130 winners identified across the 3 rounds.

Results are a great indication of the program’s effectiveness; both in diverting food into the green organics bin, and increasing recycling, and reducing contamination, in the recycling bin.

Port Pirie Regional Council joined the waste education program this year following bin inspections highlighting contamination in recycling and organics bins, and overfull waste bins.

Objectives were to encourage residents to ‘Take the Pledge’, sending less to landfill by correctly utilising their recycling and organics bins. Whilst early days, there has been great feedback from participating residents.

15 households were identified to be correctly using their bins over the 10 week competition period.

KESAB is looking forward to working further with Council over the next 12 months to continue increased recycling participation by community.

Illegal dumping education

Due to a high turnover of residents in multi-unit dwellings (MUDS), illegal dumping is often a concern to adjacent residents.

A small team of KESAB door-steppers visited a number of unit blocks in the City of Prospect to educate residents about the waste and recycling services offered by Council, with particular focus on promoting Council’s hard rubbish collection.

Providing resident’s information about their options to dispose of items when moving into/out of MUDS dwellings can be of great benefit in deterring illegal dumping.

Over half the residents spoken to were aware of the service, however less than half of these had actually used it before. The conversations provided a great opportunity to encourage residents to use the service, answer any general questions and matters about recycling raised by residents, and also address common contamination issues within the recycling and organics bins.

Overall, feedback from residents proved positive, and they were grateful with the information and flyers provided to them via the door-stepping program.

Council Presentations

KESAB has held 8 community information presentations this past year reaching approximately 200 people.

Presentations were delivered to general community members, and specific groups including AVEO retirement villages and Probus Clubs. KESAB education officers discussed waste management services provided in respective Council areas, identifying items that should be placed in the correct kerbside bin, discussed tricky items and common contaminants, and explained to residents what happens to materials following collection from the kerbside.

Events and Displays

Community education display
Community education display

PAE Christmas Pageant group, PAE Christmas Pageant
PAE Christmas Pageant group, PAE Christmas Pageant

KESAB Staff prepared displays and delivered education at community events providing great opportunities for residents to ask questions, and get some tips about how they can improve their recycling at home.

Displays were held on behalf of Adelaide Hills Council at the Stirling Library; City of Unley at the Festival of Mud and the Black Forest Primary School Fete; City of Mitcham at the Mitcham Square shopping centre and Main Road Blackwood; City of Tea Tree Gully at their ‘Get Growing’ event; Town of Walkerville at the Council Office; and Port Adelaide Enfield Council at the LeFevre Giant Garage Sale and North East Community Day events.

KESAB was again pleased to be a part of the Port Adelaide Enfield Twilight Christmas Parade, where Freddy Food Scraps and his team of food items walked the parade route, handing out information encouraging residents to place food scraps into their green bin, and also promoting Council’s ‘Take the Pledge’ program.

School Incursions

There has been a significant increase in the popularity of KESAB’s incursions with 171 incursions held.

This outstanding effort enabled 3,908 students (plus teachers) to learn about waste management and the importance of looking after our natural resources. Whether a recycle relay, where students learn about what belongs in each bin; a papermaking session, creating their own recycled product; or a composting or worm farm education session, learning about managing food waste in the home or school environment, the incursions proved to be lots of fun and opportunity for students to discover and share the experience with their families.

Assistance with school bin systems

KESAB conducted bin systems assessments and audits at a number of schools this year, providing feedback on performance of existing systems and suggestions on how sites could improve collections and diversion of materials from landfill.

Presentations to staff following these assessments/audits always followed allowing findings to be shared, examples from other sites to be given, and options for change and/or improvement to be discussed further.

Community Tours & Other Activities

PAE Gardening Workshops at St Bedes
PAE Gardening Workshops at St Bedes

Wingfield Education Centre - organics bin activity and landfill model
Wingfield Education Centre - organics bin activity and landfill model

Statewide Education Centre - Eco Shop
Statewide Education Centre - Eco Shop

Fourteen ‘Beyond the Kerb’ community tours were held over the last year, with approximately 220 people attending from 8 Council areas. Sites visited included Jeffries Garden Soils, VISY, Adelaide Resource Recovery, ECycleSA, Cleanaway and Integrated Waste Services.

KESAB partnerships encouraged respective company employees to participate and provide their time to speak to the group about the importance of their businesses in relation to waste management, resource recovery and sustainability.

Gardening Workshops

KESAB coordinated 4 free community gardening workshops this year. Two of these were held in the Port Adelaide Enfield Council area, 1 in the City of Mitcham, and 1 in the City of Unley.

The events comprised of options of 2 – 3 workshops, topics including a selection of composting, worm farms, chemical free pest control, and growing vegetables and gardening in small places.

Wingfield Waste and Recycling Education Centre

The past year has seen an increase in visits to KESAB – ARR Education Centre, located on site at Wingfield Waste and Recycling Centre. 120 classes, totalling 3055 students, plus accompanying teachers and parents/helpers, visited over the 12 month period.

The excursion provides a chance for attendees to visit sites that manage household waste and organic materials, learning about the importance of reducing waste to landfill, and the benefits of composting food and garden materials. The group also learns about the management of construction and demolition materials, and are always fascinated to find out just how much can be recycled!

An hour of activities is provided in the Education Centre, where students work in small groups to complete 6 activities.

Students further their learning about what items make good compost and mulch, disposal options for common (and not so common) household items, the structure of a landfill, uses of recycled demolition materials, and also get to see how kerbside recyclables are sorted and the problems placing the incorrect items in the recycling bin can cause.

Statewide Recycling Education Centre

Recent upgrades to the Statewide Recycling Education Centre include a new audio tour, Litter Less Interactive activity and a revamp of the KESAB environmental solutions Ecoshop.

KESAB and Statewide Recycling Centre are very excited that a few classes have already visited the revamped centre receiving very positive feedback.

We look forward to having an official launch of the updated education centre in the near future, to encourage more schools to visit the centre.