August 2011
Kangaroo Valley VIEW Club July Luncheon meeting report.
It was a clear and sunny winter’s day when a smaller than usual group met for lunch with winter taking its toll on our numbers due to people away and others unwell.
Those of us there enjoyed the company and the lunch which included some of our newer members.
Like all charities the Smith Family has reported decreased donations.
Our VIEW Club is supporting a Smith Family Learning for Life student and so we encourage all members to come to the monthly lunch and meeting so we can continue with this important venture.
Making a difference in a child’s education will make a difference in their life.
Our speaker this month was Avalynne Wilby from Shoalhaven Council.
Her topic was waste management.
All councils are high polluters as they collect and dispose of waste.
With the introduction of a carbon pollution tax all councils will be affected.
She explained that unlike some other councils, Shoalhaven has been pro-active in finding ways to reduce pollution and to manage waste. For instance they are diverting the methane produced from the land fill site where our household waste is deposited and using it to generate electricity.
They collect mattresses and electronic goods and divert them to small independent industries where the components are extracted and recycled.
The mattress covers are discarded, the high tensile steel springs and the timber frames are recycled.
This not only reduces waste and pollution but creates jobs locally and income for this business run by Mission Australia.
The same occurs with components from our old TVs and other electronic goods.
Council also collects papers, glass and plastic. These are increasingly being recycled.
This brought Avalynne to the subject of bottles and the introduction of a bottle deposit scheme. South Australia has had such a scheme running successfully for many years.
Individuals collect and take their glass and plastic bottles to a depot where they are refunded 10c for each item. (10c is added to the price at the time of purchase).
Queensland and Victoria have just introduced schemes but although it has gone before parliament in NSW a number of times, each time the introduction of such a scheme has been defeated.
Such a scheme decreases littering and therefore pollution and would save all councils in NSW money because if the same scheme is introduced as followed by South Australia small independent businesses would develop and jobs would be created and councils would be relieved of the expense of collecting and disposing of bottles.
She told us that Coca-Cola in NSW manufactures plastic bottles from South Australian bottle collections because this product is clean.
The bottle collection industry in South Australia is a private enterprise and for example produces a product that Coca-Cola needs.
Avalynne’s talk gave us much food for thought and we look forward in September to visiting council’s waste management sites and the small businesses using the collected waste. Our next meeting and luncheon will be held on Friday 12th August at the Kangaroo Valley Bowling Club at 11.30 am for 12 noon.
There will be no guest speaker as we will be having a special day looking back at Kangaroo Valley VIEW club’s album containing photos and history of our club.
We invite everyone to come, past and present members, especially past committee members. Please come armed with memorable happenings of days gone by to share with everyone.
As I looked through these albums I saw many familiar faces who are not present members, so I urge you to come and share this day.
If you are not a present member and wish to come please phone Jan Starkey and let her know.
If you are a present member and are unable to come please phone Jan Starkey on 4465 2080 or email jjstarkey42@bigpond.com by 6pm on the Wednesday before the meeting.
It is necessary for us to provide the Bowling Club with accurate numbers.
Jeannette Dumbrell
Publicity Officer