Give unwanted items a new home

The City of Canterbury Bankstown has partnered with local environmental charity, The Bower, to provide residents a FREE collection and rehoming service for unwanted reusable household items.

Mayor Khal Asfour said the partnership is part of Council’s commitment to reducing the number of items going to landfill and incidents of illegal dumping.

“We see approximately 2,500 tonnes of rubbish illegally dumped in our streets each year and a further 80,000 tonnes of rubbish is sent to landfill,” he said.

“More than 10,000 residents told us they want Canterbury-Bankstown to be a cleaner and greener city by 2028, with a keen focus on recycling and protecting the environment.

“We’re proud to support a service that gives our residents the opportunity to make this happen and with the added benefit of helping someone in need.”

To organise a free collection, residents will submit photos of the items, along with their address and contact details, to The Bower online. If the items are appropriate for collection, such as furniture, kitchenware or whitegoods, The Bower will arrange a collection time.

However, if the items are unsuitable for collection, residents can still dispose of them by:

Booking a FREE Council clean-up;Dropping them at a local waste or recycling facility; orBooking a private collection.

Picnic Point resident, Patricia Walsh, recently donated a desk, wardrobe and dressing tables to The Bower.

“The service was just so quick and easy,” Ms Walsh said.

“We need to think about helping someone else out before sending perfectly good items to landfill. It makes me happy to know someone in need will get good use out of our items.”

Council runs and supports a number of other initiatives, which aim to reduce waste, litter, and help combat illegal dumping, including:

Eight water refill stations installed around Canterbury-Bankstown which, in 2018, prevented the need for more than 2,500 plastic bottles;The We Like Our Park Litter Free program, where Clean Park Educators visit a number of local parks and reserves throughout summer, to encourage picnickers to make pledges to put their rubbish in the bin; andThe Eyes On It campaign, where Council staff and community groups patrol streets throughout Canterbury-Bankstown, and label and report any illegally dumped rubbish.

The Bower’s collection and rehoming service will be free and unlimited for Canterbury-Bankstown residents until July 2019, which means households can book in as many collections as they need.

For more information, or to book a collection, visit cb.city/cleanup