Sustainability Committee News

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue25 1–28 February 2022

I hope everyone has had a nice, relaxing - and sustainable! - break period. We start the new calendar year with a great result -- over 300kg of organic waste has now been diverted from landfill in Stromlo kitchens since we started in January 2020. I'm very confident that this figure will reach half a tonne well before the end of this year! Of course this doesn't include the huge amount of food and other organic waste people have brought in from home to the on-site composting. Habitual change is never easy, so it's been great to see people embrace this so enthusiastically!

In light of this, I've always been surprised by the relatively low take-up of the extra recycling options also available. I'd love to hear from people, what stops you taking advantage of this, in particular if you bring in food waste from home for compost. Please send your thoughts and ideas to sustainability@mso.anu.edu.au, and check here for the full list of hard-to-recycle items that are accepted.

Work on the community garden, although frequently hampered by the wet weather, has come on leaps and bounds in recent weeks, with all the raised beds now filled. Now that most of the "heavy lifting" is now done, cosmetic changes should happen quite quickly. Stay tuned for more updates...

Finally, the "Extra Resources" section of the sustainability website has been updated and more-or-less finished. It contains hints and tips on sustainability-related matters (comments very welcome to sustainability@mso.anu.edu.au).

Phil Taylor 

Markus Dirnberger

Gaston Gausachs

Isabella Gerrard

Nic Killerby-Smith

Stephanie Monty

Tony Travouillon