The 2005 NOWaste Awards were presented today by the Minister of Urban Service John Hargreaves. With the major bronze, silver and gold awards being given to the National Folk Festival, ACT Skip Hire and the Canberra International Airport. All three deserve the award and as much publicity as possible since their dedication to minimising waste going to lanfill is amazing and crosses so many areas.
Awards were given out across a variety of areas including Business, Schools, Community groups, Building/Construction services and Waste contractors. Very suprising was that there were no applicants or awards given out in the Government area and the much touted $5000 prize award for Reduction of Plastic Bags used by a Business was not awarded as no one applied. Hargreaves let those present know his disappointment but will he take it further and make sure it goes to the papers and the heads of the departments?
Heartening was the way in which schools in the region have become involved in the program. If they are starting so young maybe there is hope for our future, as long as those in government haven’t used up all the resources before the future leaders get there.
It seems that NoWaste has dropped its’ “No Waste by 2010” slogan as it was not visible at all. This was a pretty big push at the start but the reality of the situation seems to have caught up with Urban Services and they are making sure that catchcry fades into the past.
There were also significant mentions that ‘No Waste’ doesn’t mean 0% of waste at all. 5% of waste going to landfill is now good enough for the NoWaste crew.