Sustainability at Council

Long terms goals and aspirations developed and given a program to guide and support delivering on them.

• National recycling week

• National water week

• Garage Sale Trail

• Clean up Australia Day

• The Amazing Enviro Race

• Tamworth Country Music Festival

o   Tune in to Recycling

o   Water Conservation

• “Don’t be a tosser”

• RID online “report illegal dumping”

• Nobody smokes here – provide infrastructure and support educational messages

• Regional Waste Warriors Expo

• Northern Inland Regional Waste                   

Face to Faces sustainability education sessions at daycare, schools and community sessions.

 Community Awareness and Engagement.

• 2022/ 2023 - educating approx. 2,482 people across 30 Sustainability Education face to face sessions and opportunities
• 2023/2024 - educating approx. 1,591 people across 25 Sustainability Education sessions and opportunities

Identify “hot spots” for sharps disposal and ensure collection and disposal infrastructure is adequate, review locations and amend if required.

Ongoing community education and support for other services operating in the sharps space e.g. Health and Community Services groups.

Support the NSW EPA Report Illegal Dumping Campaign (RID Online) and deployment of signage within the community to encourage reporting of illegal dumping.   

This is a supportive action to the compliance activities that sit within Liveable Communities teams. 

Support the NSW EPA Don't be a Tosser Litter prevention Campaigns.

Sonny School Education Program - Unit development around Litter detectives to engage and educate children about litter and the behaviours and types of litter.

Total Tonnage = 133t. 

The CRC allows residents to dispose of common problem, and potentially hazardous, wastes that should not be sent to landfill.  Waste delivered to the CRC is collected by a contractor who takes the materials for potential recovery of recyclable materials, and treatment and disposal in a way that causes no harm.

• Litter reduction
• Materials collected via the scheme are 100% recycled reducing waste to landfill
• Supported the implementation of the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS)
• Created educational messaging and community engagement around participation and the benefits of the scheme
• Refund sharing agreement with Challenge recycling-strengthening community relationships, resilience and employment through social enterprise

• Reduce litter in typically high-volume areas
• Improve appearance of the region's town entrances
• Signage and education campaign incorporated into the grant delivery

• Recyclable material diverted from landfill
• Public place recycling available in Peel Street
• Program to expand to other main streets and high use public areas is being developed
• Audit identified opportunities for education

School Recycling Program

• Recyclable material diverted from landfill
• More of the regions schools able access recycling infrastructure and servicing
• Increase Challenge Recycling business

Waste Voucher Trial

• Bulky waste delivered to landfill instead of kerbside collection
• Kerbside – compacted and landfilled regardless of material or usefulness
• At the Landfill – materials can be sorted and recovered where possible – metal, timber etc or items suitable for Waste No More.
• Reduction in waste to landfill  

• Broad reaching community engagement and education campaign to get the right items in the right bin
• Waste services guide booklet, TV, radio, garbage truck wraps, social media, community engagement.

• Resource Recovery Shop owned and operated by Challenge Disability Services.
• Supported by Council with the provision of suitable recovered items for sale at no cost.
• Ceased to operate in December 2023 at the discretion of Challenge Disability Services as the operator of the facility.

• DIY and trade painters take their unwanted paint and packaging to a Paintback site. Paintback accepts up to 100 litres per visit stowed in containers of up to 20 litres.
• Tamworth Regional Council's collection site is the only one in the New England and North West Region.
• This program is targeted at trades people specifically.

• Developed an education program to get residents to separate out their noxious for self-haul in an attempt to reduce the spread of them.
• The intent was to assist with the onsite processing of greenwaste and complying with Australian Standards for mulch.
• The trail ceased as Council engaged a professional precessor for mulch with Renew Organics. 

• Developed an education program around covering loads of utes, trailers or trucks to reduce the amount of litter falling from vehicles.
• Intended to ensure the community understand their obligations to cover and secure their loads during transport of materials to the Waste Management Facility.
• Undertake random blitz campaigns where 'offenders' are advised of their errors and how to correct and avoid future potential fines. 

• Implemented a bin tagging program with Council' Waste Contractor to inspect residential kerbside bins on a regular basis on agreed locations for specific Phases.
• The same locations are monitored in a Phase for an 8 week period before changing to new inspection locations.
• The purpose is to reduce contamination in the recycling bins and to do it with residents during the presentation of their bins and prevent it adding to contamination as a whole. 
• Residents are issued a blue tag congratulating them on their excellent recycling, an orange tag if there are minor things to fix in their recycling (bin still serviced) or they are issued a red tag and their bin is rejected due to gross contamination and when the problem has been fixed, then their bin will be serviced by the waste contractor. 

Investigation into establishing the Green Caffeen Swap & Go takeaway coffee/tea cup initiative were investigated and put to Council but the initiative was not adopted by Council.

In conjunction with Northern Inland Regional Waste, Council has provided an opportunity to access free asbestos test kits for owners of properties to test their homes before undertaking renovations or improvement works, to know if asbestos is present and then provide them with the information, they require on how to manage and dispose of correctly, any asbestos that is being removed. 

This program also aligns with discouraging illegal dumping of asbestos material within the community.

Community feedback to Council indicated that significant numbers of the community would prefer to receive their waste vouchers electronically rather than by post due to them taking so long to arrive or going missing. Vouchers were issued one each quarter - July, October, December, March.

Utilising Council's existing Weighbridge software, Mandalay, Waste Voucher access was built in to the system using their existing software module. A number of checks and balances have been put in place to prevent roughting of the system that the whole community would bare the cost of.

From October 2024, all vouchers will now be issued in July.  If residents move or change address, when they are disconnected from their property, any vouchers that have not been used will be cancelled and they will be reissued vouchers for the new property they move in to when they have been connected. 

Targeted small scale trail of Food Organics collection in preparation for the NSW State Madated Food Organics collection to commence when the construction of a new Organics Processing facility is established. 

Purpose of trial was to obtain feedback from the community on various types of kitchen collection infrastructure and the issues experienced with each type of collection infrastructure.

Obtain the tips and tricks developed by residents to combat any issues they experienced with each type of collection receptical. 

2024

Trail extended to June 2025

With kerbside bulky household waste collection services not included in the new waste collection contract due to costs, a trail of a fee for service collection was requested by Council. 

Services were established in 2023 for a fee for service kerbside collection trial, available for all but specifically to assist residents who are aged and/or infirmed that can't take their bulky household waste items to the landfill, or don't have access to a ute or trailer.

Implement a booking process online for non-pensioner services and in person booking process to verify and protect pensioner information to receive the discounts as part of the counter payment process.

To divert residential soft plastics from landfill.

At the end of the reporting year 2023/2024 - there had been a total of 16.1 ton of soft plastic from domestic residents diverted. 

Contractor still has the program in Trial status and will advise when the program will move from this status soon.

• 4 sets of double bin waste and recycling purchased for Nundle Village. Installation is complete.   
• 8 sets of double bin waste and recycling purchased and installed for Barraba. 4 of these have ben installed, the other 4 are to be installed soon.
• Installed 20 Secure Container Deposit Scheme collection infrastructure for the Tamworth Sports Dome in order to increase diversion from landfill and regular servicing.
• Internal physical waste audit completed at the end of 2023/2024.
• Report and recommendations to come in 2024/2025.

To ensure where Council kerbside waste services are either not appropriate or able to be provided, new developments can be serviced by private waste contractors, and to ensure that recycling and recovering of resources from landfill is a priority at all stages of development and/or for businesses during occupation and ongoing operation.

This aligns with the NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 and the targets to increase resource recovery to 80% for all waste streams including Construction and Demolition waste and Commercial and Industrial waste categories.

Create resource waste management plan templates for building and construction works.

Create resource waste management plan templates for the use of occupation / operational sites (Commercial and industries premises).

To support developers and builders when submitting their Development Applications (DA) to include required waste information and to determine if adequate resource recovery activities have been implemented to reduce recoverable resource to landfill and keep them in the circular economy.

This aligns with the NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 and the targets to increase resource recovery to 80% for all waste streams including Construction and Demolition waste and Commercial and Industrial waste categories.

Overall, 36 tonne of CRC material was diverted from landfill. The following are the larger volume items:

• 21.6 tonne of paint.
• 4.9 tonne of gas bottles.
• 3.1 tonne of fire extinguishers.
• 1.2 tonne of household batteries.
• 1 tonne of florescent tubes.

Other problem household wastes diverted from landfill overall:

• motor oil – 28,700L
• vehicle batteries – 33 tonnes
• commercial fluorescent  – 0.5 tonne.

At the end of 2023/2024 a Builders Waste Audit was undertaken to identify the top 5 materials received through the single skip disposal (waste) method from most construction sites.

Consultation with the local building and construction industry about their waste and resource recovery practices was also undertaken.
Next stage is to receive the reports and the identified opportunities for further resource recovery in terms of the top 5 materials.

Review the consultation with the Builders and the barriers and opportunities to work with them towards greater resource recovery to reduce the amount of material ending up in landfill that could otherwise become a resource and enter the circular economy again. 

Sharps and Needle reporting – has been updated and rolled out to the wider organisation through Survey 123 so the forms are now online &, have the ability to record a GPS location when responding to an found discarded sharp or needle in a public place.  

Council cleaning contractors have also been provided with a link to document sharps located during their scope of works across the region.

Going to market through an expression of interest process to identify any highly experienced operators interested in establishing an industrial hard plastics processing facility in the region.

Industrial plastics focused on are 2, 3 & 5 (example but not limited to corflute, PVC pipe, conduit pipe, car bumpers).

As part of the Community Recycling Centre Collection items, Council is one of 21 Councils in the state to become an Embedded Battery Collection location.  Embedded batteries are in everyday items that we don't realise and if disposed of in the landfill are a major risk of fire if punctured.  

Embedded batteries are batteries that cannot be removed to either replace or recharge.

Items such as bluetooth ear buds, toothbrushes, e-bikes, e-scooters, hover boards, remote control cars and vapes.

Hosted a Give a Sheet for the Planet Event focusing on the collection of cotton & polyester materials in peoples linen cupboards.

114 cars on the day, 1,020 kg collected for Give a Sheet program (1,700 sheets), 500kg of towels collected and donated to local vets (1,250 sheets)

Average of 10.2kg per household (114 households attended on the day).

• Belmore Park Bore and storm water tank installed to irrigate cricket pitch and adjacent bowling greens 
• Lockheed Street Depot 200,000 litre rainwater tank installed at depot for vehicle wash-down, toilet flushing, street sweeper and road projects requiring tankers
• All roundabouts with gardens Dripper systems and timers installed
• Flynn Street Depot 115 kilolitre rainwater tank installed to be used for mower and vehicle wash-down and CBD bird disruption
• Botanic Gardens Bore installed
• Manilla Caravan Park Dual flush toilets installed
• Manilla Town Halls Tap aerators and thermostatic mixing valves
• Gipps Street Playing Fields Bore and tank system now irrigates fields completely with groundwater
• Purchased 500 Greenwell tree watering systems for new tree plantings
• Forest Road Landfill rainwater tank installed and plumbed to staff amenities
• Regional Playground synthetic turf installation
• Sports Dome synthetic turf installation
• TRECC sensor taps installed throughout venue
• Whaler memorial park update to drought tolerant garden

• A portion of backwash waste water (waste product during treatment process) is returned to the head of the plant to be treated again.
• This saves the amount of water requiring to be brought in from raw water sources.

Education campaign targeting outdoor water use and ways to reduce treated water needed to maintain useable and beautiful outdoor residential areas.

Campaign launched as 100GL Chaffey Dam reached 100%, giving residents to convert and establish gardens and outdoor areas better able to survive the next dry/restricted period.

• Engaged and educated staff that are taking water saving knowledge back to the workplace.
• Several new spaces since developed using the information learned at the training e.g. water wise garden at the Waler Memorial.

• “Back wash” wastewater product produced at treatment plant
• Pumped to AELEC and sports precinct for irrigation
• Zero treated water used for landscaping irrigation in these spaces

• Recognise efficiencies and identify water savings opportunities
• Conserve water now and in the long term

• The 120ML raw water storage dam will improve harvesting efficiency of raw water sourced for the Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal town supply from Chaffey Dam by up to 13% annually.
• This project will also provide Council with additional operational advantages such as improved raw water quality and potential electricity cost savings.

• The Values and Perceptions Survey was designed to capture the feedback or residents in areas that had moved to Permanent Water Conservation Measures in mid-2020.
• The Survey gathered feedback on the effectiveness of Council's Marketing and Communications activities throughout the drought and the Drought Management Plan.

Council Water Sensitive Design Controls will assist the community to achieve a long term sustainable reduction in reliance on potable water and increase the reuse of grey water throughout the region. 

The Water Saving Rebate Scheme supports the implementation of the Water Sensitive Design Controls.

• Artificial turf, regional playground.
• AELEC sensor taps (main area).
• AELEC sensor taps, TAFE block and amenities.
• Aritificial turf- Community Centre, 75sqm.
• Tamworth Town Hall and community centre sensor taps                                                               

 Relaunched post drought with the benefit of updates to water conservation messaging and community engagement.

• AELEC sensor taps.
• AELEC Sensor taps B-Block and multipurpose. 
• Tamworth Regional Pound - Installation of a 22,500L tank, fog misting system and associated infrastructure.

To develop an accurate baseline on the economic impact of the drought on Tamworth and the regional economy for at least the top five sectors by employment and output; an understanding of the strategies used by businesses to manage water demand and supply during drought; hydroclimate projections under future climate scenarios for the Tamworth region; quantitative and qualitative outputs will provide insights on the likely costs and impacts that drought has produced in the regional economy of TRC; and limited set of scenarios.

• Parry house plumbers audit. 
• Bendemeer showground - leak reduction project
• Disability Hub synthetic turf.

Improve community education around water use outside of water restrictions.

• Establishment of the Kootingal waterwise garden
• Water refill station available for Counci events to reduce use of single use plastic

Payback period 6.2 years.

• Capital cost $1.3 M
• Savings $200 k p.a.
• Environmental savings 689 tons of carbon dioxide or 13.8 million black balloons p.a.

•  Small sites saving p.a. compared to standing rate $353 k
• 3 year contract for small sites energy supply.
• NSW Procurement contract had the best financial outcome for Council.

·         High Energy consumption

·         Potential for energy use reductions

·         Potential for $ savings

Audit schedule being undertaken by Energy Sustainability Officer, report with outcome and recommendations provided to facility managers, support to implement changes given.

11 sites identified for BTM solar – energy/$ savings

• Capital Cost $595,107
• Savings p.a. $116,000
• Energy savings p.a. 1 GWh

Emissions savings 820 p.a. tonnes of carbon dioxide or 16.4 million black balloons

• Increase access to the region for tourism, day trips for EV owners
• Support an increase in EV market across the region
• More EV’s = reduction in combustion engines which reduces emissions

• Accurate data – able to track energy use, cost
• Identify efficiency opportunities, changes to operations utilising off peak times to make $ savings
• Identify wastage and save energy use and cost e.g. air conditioners on automatic timers being turned off during holiday shut down periods.

• Large sites saving p.a. compared to standing rates $1.3 M
• Large sites saving p.a. compared to 2019 rate $183 k
• 18 Councils, others from CNSWJO and REROC
• $312 k premium to include 20% renewables
• Two stage tender process undertaken to renew energy contract for a short term and then again for a long-term contract
• Short term (6 month) contract entered into due to market instability and poor pricing
• 3-year contract commenced in January 2020, markets more stable, pricing better
• Council joined a Council buying group of to leverage best possible price

• Large sites saving p.a. compared to the previous year 215,218.00
• Small sites savings compared to the previous year $53,231.00
• Council entered into a buying group with SSROC with the successful retailer awarded to ZEN energy
• Large sites entered into a 4+4 year contract ending on the 31st of December 2026
• Small sites entered into 4.5+4 year contract ending on the 31st of December 2026 
• Council chose the 20% Renewable option, guaranteeing 20% of Councils energy use is from a renewable source 
• Council joined a Council buying group to leverage best possible price
• A 4-year contract was entered as this provided a more stable pricing structure, this allowed Council to get the best possible price.

Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre (AELEC)

• 284 lights were upgraded to LED
• Resulting in an estimated $26,203.40 in electricity savings annually 
• Calculated payback of 2.5 years 

474 Peel Street (Liveable Communities)

• 114 lights were upgraded to LED

• Resulting in an estimated annual savings of $3,700
• Calculated payback of 2.9 years