Environmental initiatives

Reduc­ing waste can save you mon­ey, con­serve nat­ur­al resources, save ener­gy and water, reduce pol­lu­tion and pro­long the life of our land­fill. Alice Springs Town Coun­cil encour­ages res­i­dents to adopt sus­tain­able behav­iours to reduce waste and offers the fol­low­ing tips.

Rethink

Before pur­chas­ing some­thing ask your­self some quick ques­tions: Do you real­ly need to pur­chase this new? Can you use some­thing else instead? Can you bor­row this from some­one? Can you pur­chase this sec­ond hand? Vis­it the Redis­cov­ery Cen­tre, a sec­ond hand shop, or check Face­book Marketplace.

Recy­cle

Although there is no kerb­side recy­cling ser­vice avail­able in Alice Springs, many recy­clable items can be tak­en to the Region­al Waste Man­age­ment Facility. 

Click here to see the list of items that can be recy­cled, or look at the Recy­cle Mate web­site for alter­na­tive drop off points on an inter­ac­tive map.

Reduce land­fill by giv­ing your unwant­ed trea­sures a new home

Donate, sell or give­away items you no longer need. Fur­ni­ture, cloth­ing, tools and more can go to Op Shops or The Redis­cov­ery Cen­tre. You can also sell or give them away through plat­forms like Face­book Mar­ket­place or Face­book groups such as Pay it for­ward or Give­away or Mutu­al Aid.

Alter­na­tive­ly you could hold a garage sale, or do a swap with friends.

Make eco-friend­ly choices

Alice Springs Town Coun­cil offers a Green Liv­ing Sub­sidy for the pur­chase of var­i­ous sus­tain­able items includ­ing reusable cloth nap­pies, food wraps and san­i­tary items, com­post and worm farms, res­i­den­tial solar hot water sys­tems and e bikes.

Com­post your kitchen scraps

Turn food waste into valu­able com­post for your gar­den. Check the Green Liv­ing Sub­sidy for assis­tance with pur­chas­ing com­post equip­ment. If you don’t have a gar­den, find a neigh­bour who can use the food waste, or take your organ­ic waste to the Region­al Waste Man­age­ment Facil­i­ty and put it in the Biobin. Alter­na­tive­ly, you could join a Com­mu­ni­ty Garden.

Repair

Extend the life of your belong­ings and save on replace­ments by repair­ing. Vis­it a repair café or Men’s Shed to learn how to fix bro­ken items or get expert help. You can also join the repair move­ment and share your skills with others.

Reduce sin­gle use items by pur­chas­ing reusable items

Car­ry­ing a reusable bot­tle is a great way to cut your plas­tic use and save mon­ey too. There are fill­ing sta­tions around and many cafes, restau­rants and bars are also hap­py to refill your bot­tle too. Go here to check out the water bub­bler loca­tions in the CBD (select Water Bub­blers on the left hand side menu). Drink­ing foun­tains are also locat­ed at some of the parks in Alice Springs. For a list of parks with drink­ing foun­tains, click here and look for the water icon. 

Dis­pos­able cof­fee cups can almost nev­er be recy­cled. Car­ry a reusable cup with you espe­cial­ly if you are in the habit of buy­ing a cof­fee every day – some cafes offer dis­counts if you use your own cup. There are many reusable cof­fee cups avail­able on the mar­ket, or just bring a mug from home or work. 

Many of us are used to car­ry­ing a reusable bag with us – if you still find it hard to remem­ber, try a fold­away one that you can car­ry in your nor­mal day bag, or put some by your front door.

Use wash­able and reusable cloth nap­pies for the lit­tle ones. Alice Springs Town Coun­cil offers res­i­dents up to 50% of the pur­chase prices for reusable nap­pies and acces­sories. Check out the Green Liv­ing Sub­sidy here.

Use reusable san­i­tary items. Alice Springs Town Coun­cil offers res­i­dents up to 50% of the pur­chase prices for reusable san­i­tary items. Check out the Green Liv­ing Sub­sidy here.

Avoid exces­sive food packaging

Whether it’s mak­ing dif­fer­ent choic­es in the super­mar­ket or choos­ing a dif­fer­ent place to shop, we can all try and cut down on the plas­tic we buy. For exam­ple, loose fruit and veg­eta­bles and larg­er bags of snacks for lunch­box­es to dis­trib­ute out into lunch­box­es rather than indi­vid­u­al­ly pack­aged items.

Ditch the plas­tic cling wrap

There are many fan­tas­tic alter­na­tives to plas­tic cling wrap that you can use to reduce plas­tic pol­lu­tion. Stor­ing and pack­ing food in reusable con­tain­ers is a great start. You can also pur­chase reusable sil­i­cone bowl top­pers to cov­er food in bowls, pots and pans, or even use an upside down plate, reusable cloth cov­er or pur­chase some bees wax wraps. Alice Springs Town Coun­cil offers res­i­dents up to 50% of the pur­chase prices for reusable food wraps. Check out the Green Liv­ing Sub­sidy here.

Spark cre­ativ­i­ty and imagination

Bor­row toys from the Toy Library to keep your lit­tle ones enter­tained while reduc­ing clut­ter and waste and keep­ing them inter­est­ed in dif­fer­ent toys.

Sup­port local music education

Donate or bor­row musi­cal instru­ments through Music­NT.

Share the bounty

Donate sur­plus food to Food­Bank, work­mates, friends or put on Face­book Mar­ket­place or Face­book Groups such as Pay it for­ward or Giveaway.

Skip the sin­gle-use par­ty mess

Choose reusable dec­o­ra­tions and table­ware for your cel­e­bra­tions to min­imise waste and cre­ate a more sus­tain­able par­ty experience.