March 4th, 2024Help sort things out at the Begonia fest

Visitors to this year’s Ballarat Begonia Festival are being encouraged to be a “super sorter” and put their waste in the right place.

A dedicated Sustainable Environment Ballarat stall at the festival, run by the City of Ballarat, will feature a fun, educational and interactive game that challenges participants to correctly sort their waste into the four waste streams – general waste, recycling, garden organics and glass.

Placing items into the correct bin prevents contamination including general recyclables, garden organics and glass. Contamination contributes to more waste going to landfill.

At last year’s Begonia Festival, 2.1 tonnes of general waste and 5.3 tonnes of recyclables were collected, highlighting the importance of effective waste management.

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson (pictured above) tested out the new interactive game with local children recently.

Cr Hudson said the game, set to be featured at the Sustainable Environment Ballarat stall, is a fun way for both kids and adults to test their super sorting skills to win prizes and be a champion for the environment.

“I encourage everyone to come along, test out their sorting powers and be a super sorter who is working to help save the environment,” he said.

“The better we sort our waste, the more we can recycle and that means less waste that goes into landfill – and more waste being reused and repurposed.

“It’s never been more important to reduce and reuse our waste and this game is one out of a range of fantastic sustainability initiatives taking place at this year’s Begonia Festival.”

Sustainability initiatives at the Begonia Festival include:

• Six waste stations located across the festival site with staff available to help guide patrons to dispose of their waste into the correct bin – including general waste, recycling, garden organics and glass.
• All packaging sold from food vendors and stallholders will be recyclable or compostable.
• Local company ‘GroundUp Coffee Recyclers’ will collect the used coffee grounds from the coffee vendors, which will then be delivered to regenerative and small-scale farmers in the Ballarat region.