Council to open eco-store

LISMORE City Council is offering the community the opportunity to further improve their environmental credentials with its new Save n Waste Recycle Store.

LISMORE City Council is offering the community the opportunity to further improve their environmental credentials by closing the loop on all things recycling with the opening of its new Save n Waste Recycle Store in Council's CBD Office at 10.00am on Wednesday 14 March.

Mayor Jenny Dowell said the store is a one-stop shop for people who are mindful of the impact their product choices and level of commitment to recycling have on the environment.

"We are now offering one point of sale for items traditionally sold by Council such as compost bins and worm farms, but we are also going a step further by providing a range of products that encourage waste minimisation, promote reuse, or are made from recycled materials," Cr Dowell said.

"This community has a keen interest in sustainability and our ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by promoting products that can be reused or recycled and also providing advice about what items can be recycled, which is probably more than some people realise.

"This is an exciting initiative and I encourage everyone to drop into Council's CBD Office and take a look."

Lismore City Council's Waste Operations Coordinator, Kevin Trustum, said that one of the most exciting items that will be sold through the Save n Waste Store is the Eenee compostable nappies.

"These nappies are the first disposables to be fully recognised by Composting Australia and will be accepted in Council's kerbside organics collection system," Mr Trustum said.

"The collection of the compostable nappies will operate in the same way that the biobags currently do, in that residents with an organics service will need to register with Council to use them, and only these approved nappies will be accepted.

"Given that Australians send approximately 800,000 nappies a year to landfill where they take hundreds of years to break down, the introduction of these nappies into the organics collection system is a really positive step for the environment."

Other items that will be sold in the shop include compostable bin liners, reusable drink bottles, coffee cups and shopping bags, and a range of office bins that will make it easy to separate waste and recycle as much as possible.

The CBD Office foyer is also home to a new Resource Recovery wall facility that has been custom designed for the collection of special recyclable items such as batteries, mobile phones, fluorescent light bulbs and printer cartridges.

The Save n Waste Recycle Store and Resource Recovery Collection Station are both initiatives of Lismore City Council's Integrated Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy which was adopted by Council in October 2011.

The Save n Waste Recycle Store and Resource Recovery Collection Station wall, located at the CBD Office, 55 Magellan Street, Lismore, will be officially opened by Lismore City Council Mayor Jenny Dowell at 10.00am on Wednesday, March 14.  Media and the community are invited to attend.

For more information on Lismore City Council's waste initiatives, contact the Customer Contact Centre on 1300 87 83 87 or visit northernriverswaste.com.au.

Originally published as Council to open eco-store