Orange scores two category wins in National Tidy Towns awards

7 March 2018

Orange represented NSW in the national awards after winning the state-wide prize late last year.

At the awards ceremony on Friday night, Orange was awarded the top prize in the ‘Dame Phyllis Frost Litter Prevention, Waste Management & Resource Recovery’ category and also shared the category prize with the eventual national winner for ‘Environmental Sustainability’. Local young environmental activist Bailey Dickinson-Bubb was awarded a Highly Commended award in the ‘Young Legends’ category.

“This is a fantastic result for Orange and a real pat-on-the-back for the local community,” Cr Reg Kidd said. “Awards like this don’t just happen without years of hard work by keen community members supported by council staff.”

“We are always looking at continuous improvement, and this is shown in this recognition for our waste management and progress in better environment sustainability. A big thank you goes out to all the members of the Tidy Towns Community Committee.”

The awards were presented on the weekend in the South Australian town of Barmera, the centre which won last year’s national Tidy Town award. This year the national winner of the Tidy Towns award was the town of Smithton, on the north west coast of Tasmania (Pop. 3,881).

“Managing waste is one of those tasks that local councils do, that can slip under the radar,” Cr Joanne McRae said. “When it’s done well it can be almost invisible, but an award like this is a good reminder of why it’s so important to manage waste in the best way we can.”

“There aren’t many regional councils that have invested in a weekly household kitchen & garden waste collection, and who then take the extra step of locally turning that waste into industrial quantities of compost.”

“The aim of any good waste management system is to find what’s valuable in the waste stream and divert as much as possible out of landfill. Both with recycling and with kitchen & garden waste, more than half the waste from Orange’s homes is being put to good use and not simply buried in the ground.”

“A national win in the Environmental Sustainability category is another sign that the Orange community is getting things right when it comes to making sure we’re looking after the environment on the long-term.

“What’s interesting is that this work has benefits a number of different levels. The four constructed wetlands that are a part of a pioneering stormwater harvesting scheme are making a significant contribution to our city’s water supply. They’re also adding corridors of bushland among residential areas. They become places for recreation and habitat for wildlife. They’re also places where hundreds of community members come together every year plants thousands of new trees.

“It’s a sign that when we aim at environmental sustainability, we’re helping to grow our community in so many different ways.”