CBCity wins state award

The City of Canterbury Bankstown’s We Like Greenacre Litter Free initiative, has won a state award.

Mayor Khal Asfour said he Council has been presented with the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW 2018 Sustainable Cities Hey Tosser! Litter Prevention Award.

“In 2015, we found the litter rate in Greenacre was three times higher than similar locations in NSW, despite the fact 98 per cent of residents in the suburb told us they wanted to see it clean and litterfree,” he said.

“We undertook a range of activities, including replacing bins, hosting clean up events and allocating an officer to focus exclusively on keeping the area tidy.

“But it was the partnerships with local businesses that was central to this program. Thanks to their help, there was a massive 54 per cent reduction in litter over three years.”

Council is currently running a number of other education and clean-up initiatives, including the Clean Street, Clean Creek campaign, where it has joined forces with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Strathfield Council and Cooks River Alliance, to help reduce litter entering the Cooks River via Cox Creek.

The program involves a number of teams visiting more than 200 businesses (124 in Canterbury-Bankstown) around Cox Creek, in Lakemba and Strathfield South, to educate and support their clean-up efforts.

Over the next few months, the teams will:

Do an initial litter assessment for each business and create a tailored improvement plan;Support a number of clean-up efforts with each business;Provide businesses with signs, to show their active involvement in reducing litter; andMeasure the reduction of litter around each business, in February 2019.

Mayor Khal Asfour said it’s critical these businesses are particularly vigilant about illegal dumping and litter.

“Canterbury-Bankstown is right at the top of the Cooks River catchment, which actually starts at Graf Park, Yagoona, and is joined by Cox Creek, Lakemba, so the health and cleanliness of the river really starts with us,” he said.

Council officers will be engaging with picnickers at Canterbury-Bankstown’s six foreshore parks, as part of the We Like Our Park Litter Free program, educating park users on how small actions can make a big difference to how clean the City is. They will:

Ask the community to take a pledge to dispose of rubbish correctly;Give residents litter bags, so rubbish can be easily and correctly disposed of; andIssue fines to park users doing the wrong thing.

For more information, visit cb.city/litterprevention