Resource Recovery and Workplace culture – what does best practice look like

When you design and deliver a program that achieves this

the role models you meet and other people’s good behaviour tends to rub off.

Today I made my monthly visit to my local recycling depot run by my local council and there was mega activity  . 

I was witnessing our council’s replacement model for curb side collection in action.

My initial shock at what I was seeing was rapidly replaced by immense pride.

It was the most extraordinary experience  of workplace culture I have seen in a long time. Everyone I spoke to from the delightful person who checked in my recycling at the weighbridge to the young man who introduced me to Josephine who is the team leader for this extraordinary effort was so proud of what they were achieving for:

  1. worker safety
  2. environmental outcomes
  3. community cohesion and in reality community enlightenment

It was a lifetime highlight for me. Somebody at Kiama Council is doing something extraordinary for workplace culture. Mega kudos

So lets put this all in perspective. Recognising I am a rural resident so the previous curb side pick up service was not available for me and this is my understanding of how it worked (happy to be corrected) and this is how it now works ( again happy to be corrected).

In the past council provided the opportunity  twice a year for urban residents to use their curb side collection facility for unwanted household goods. Council team members collected no longer wanted household items from the curb side  and it all went to landfill. This as you can imagine also came with some potential worker safety and biohazard challenges

Today the new model sees urban ( and I assume rural ) residents take their own unwanted household goods to the recycling plant where it is determined whether or not their unwanted household goods fit into “RRR” (recoverable resources) or “landfill”

WOW  do the pictures tell the story

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All of this previously went into landfill

Now only this little bit ends up in landfill

Its not hard to see why the Kiama Council team are so proud

Author: Lynne Strong

I am a 6th generation farmer who loves surrounding myself with optimistic, courageous people who believe in inclusion, diversity and equality and embrace the power of collaboration. I am the founder of Picture You in Agriculture. Our team design and deliver programs that inspire pride in Australian agriculture and support young people to thrive in business and life

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