Executive Summary:

Litter is a multi million dollar problem in society

“Don’t Waste Murray” is a litter reduction and management project that takes the concepts developed by the Beverage Industry Environmental Council (BIEC) and the Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland (KABQ) and implements them at a local level.

Murray is a suburb within Townsville that is home base for a number of sporting bodies including basketball, hockey, soccer, netball, AFL, rugby league, cricket, darts, BMX and cycling. All have an individual management structures and infrastructure to run their individual clubs.

Low on their list of priorities was to manage litter and waste from within their own sporting arena, however it was paramount that each sporting area be seen as clean.

The “Don’t Waste Murray” plan looked at developing an overall approach to litter control within the confines of individual clubs as well as on roads and open public space.

Clubs were assisted in developing waste management plan for their day to day operations along with developing plans for large scale sporting events.

A promotions campaign was developed which linked in the “Don’t Waste Australia” with each club and tied through the colours and message, giving the program instant recognition and creditability.

The campaign has been very successful in shifting the responsibility of litter control from the regulator or local council to the source of the litter.

Planning:

“Don’t Waste Murray” came about by a simple observation that the combined Murray sporting area lacked a “kept” look.

A co operative approach between all users of the area was considered the best method to improve the image and look of the area, raise the profile while attempting to reduce costs.

Litter management and sporting bodies are addressed a number of times in the 2002 / 2005 Townsville City Corporate Plan across a number of departmental lines.

Social Planning identifies the provision of sporting facilities and the promotion of major sporting events. Environmental Management looks at developing and maintaining a healthy and sustainable environment for our city and Environmental Health are required to maintain adequate controls over traditional public health issues while also addressing emerging problems.

Litter management is further mentioned in Operational plans for our Cleansing and Parks Services program to provide clean, hygienic and aesthetically acceptable streets and facilities, to maintain the city's image.

The Operational plans are strengthened by a range of specific plans and strategies dealing with litter.

• Citiwaste Performance Plan. (Updated yearly)
• An integrated litter management strategy for Townsville (Dec 2003)
• Waste and Litter education strategy – Townsville
• Waste and Litter education strategy – Townsville and Thuringowa.

These plans and direction are not specifically designed to address individual litter management plans, rather to set the framework for specific programs to operate within.

Innovation

The "Don't Waste Australia" drill down programs are not new, nor are programs associated with sporting and recreation clubs, however combining a litter management program with sporting organisation in mass is something that our research has shown to be the first of its kind in Australia.

A coordinated approach to litter management in this confined sporting area was sold to the clubs on the following grounds.

• Sporting club’s litter infrastructure would be reviewed and upgraded if necessary.
• The program would be titled “Don’t Waste Murray” and would latch onto the coat tails of a larger litter management campaign being run in Townsville “Don’t Waste Townsville” and an even bigger campaign “Don’t Waste Australia”.
• A greater emphasis would be placed on keeping roads and public open space litter free in the Murray area
• Because the public open areas would be clear of litter, this would drive the clubs to duplicate efforts within their fences.
• A marketing campaign would be commenced that would assist all clubs in individual promotion of their sport within the area and link these messages to “Don’t Waste Murray”
• Promotional materials of a sporting nature would developed and distributed free to sporting clubs.

The innovation lies in the bottom up approach to litter management rather than the costly top down approach.

Process

The project was born out of the uncleanliness of the public roads and sporting places in the Murray sporting area.

Discussions were held with

• Townsville Netball Association
• Townsville Australian Football League
• Bindal Sharks United Sports and Recreation Aboriginal Group
• North Queensland Soccer Federation
• Townsville Junior Soccer Association
• Townsville Hockey Association
• Townsville Basketball Association
• Townsville Cricket Association
• Townsville Darts Association.

Regarding the implementation of site specific litter management programs.

Premises were inspected and a litter hot spot analysis was conducted. This determined

• If sufficient numbers of bins existed
• If the size and type were appropriate for the location
• The location and placement of the bin

Discussions also revolved around

• Development of a waste management plan for each club.
• Provision of extra infrastructure.
• Implementation of Major event waste management plan
• Internal and external marketing opportunities to promote litter management.

It has also been identified that a majority of the waste generated at these facilities is recyclable. Stage two of this project will look at how public place recycling can be incorporated into the program.

Benefits

The sporting organisations in the Murray area now have a defined litter management plan for each club which is backed up by a litter management plan for public open spaces and roads.

The entire campaign taps into the highly successful “Don’t Waste Australia” campaign which was developed from the highly successful “Do the right thing” litter reduction campaign. These successful campaigns have given instant recognition to “Don’t Waste Murray”

The campaign also links into local highly successful litter management program in “Don’t Waste Townsville” and “Don’t Waste our Strand”.

Other benefits include;

• Litter reduction in the public spaces in the Murray area has reduced significantly through correct placement of bins by Hot spot analysis.
• Litter reduction at Murray is an extension of Council’s commitment to litter management in other high profile areas in Townsville.
• Clubs can use the promotional facilities provided in the campaign for the benefit of their club. (drink bottles, shade tent and updatable display boards)
• Reduction in litter in this area (which backs onto the Ross River) has a downstream affect on pollution, water quality, aesthetics and wildlife protection
• Large scale awareness of litter management through sporting commitments.
• Public health intervention at the ground level.
• Reduction in litter management costs.

Transferability

The base of the program revolves around the development of “waste management plans”. These plans are individually generated around a generic model with the assistance of each club and Environmental Health Officers of Townsville City Council. They address current litter infrastructure, location of bins according to “Hot spot analysis”, the number of bins and address in part the marketing of anti littering messages.

These plans are then used to develop a plan for litter management at large scale events.

The concept of these plans are portable across any sporting, community, cultural or social event. These plans can be used very effectively to manage litter management at any event.

Our experience with this project is that sporting clubs are keen to be part of a litter management program. In Townsville a combination of sporting venues in one area has led to an economy of scale operation, however a similar program could operate with venues separated by distance. The end result being a managed approach to sporting venues being kept clean and clear of litter.

Does this project address a major health issue.

Litter is regularly seen, but rarely addressed by the general community. It requires significant amount of capital investment and operational funding to achieve a satisfactory outcome. We have been conditioned over the years that litter management will be organised, coordinated and arranged by different levels of government.

Green and environmental groups have gone to great lengths to educate the public to the downstream effects of litter on the ecology of the reef and water eco system and all of its inhabitants.

In Townsville, the costs of litter management were investigated and it was revealed that the control of litter stretched across a number of departments and cost this community in excess of one million dollars annually.

Litter management is not normally seen as a partnership arrangement between regulators and community stakeholders, however in the Murray sporting area, Litter management is now being viewed as an important health initiative. It is an issue that is now being actively addressed by the Council, by the sporting organisation and by the sporting fraternity.

The success of the program is that a number and range of sporting clubs have been prepared to come on board with this program, they have been prepared to address litter at the ground level, ie to physically pick it up and they have been made aware of the program by the marketing strategy that has been put in place.

The program has only just been rolled out, and quantifiable results will not be known for some time, however it has already been identified that the program could also consider the introduction of public place recycling. This concept will strengthen the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse and recycle.

With the introduction of public place recycling at these venues will come a system of monitoring and surveillance to determine the exact nature of the litter from these sporting clubs and how much of it is being diverted to be recycled as opposed to taking up refuse tip space and a natural resource being lost.

Partnerships

The Townsville City Council has developed partnerships with all of the sporting clubs in the Murray sporting area. They have included:

• Townsville Netball Association
• Townsville Australian Football League
• Bindal Sharks United Sports and Recreation Aboriginal Group
• North Queensland Soccer Federation
• Townsville Junior Soccer Association
• Townsville Hockey Association
• Townsville Basketball Association
• Townsville Cricket Association
• Townsville Darts Association.

For a partnership arrangement to work successfully, both parties need to win.

The Win Win situation in this partnership was that Council would achieve close to a litter free environment at Murray through effective litter management with minimal cost. The work being carried out by Council staff in cleaning streets and public open spaces would be complimented by the work being carried out within the fences of these organisations. The area would remain polished which would create ownership to the problem and solution which shows the program is sustainable. The council would take on the role of health educator rather than law enforcer.

The sporting organisations have benefited from this partnership by

• A review of their litter infrastructure being conducted of each sporting club. If the infrastructure was found to be deficient, litter bins were provided free of charge. (100 wheelie bins were disseminated into this area)
• The locations of these bins were reviewed and bins were placed in positions more appropriate to collect a majority of litter.
• A community notice board was installed at both entrances / exits of Murray. These boards are 2.4 m x 1.2 m and are similar to those boards seen at schools. These boards will be used to advertise the activities of the area to the 10,000 cars that travel through the area each day.
• The updating of the boards will be done by a club and will be rotated. It is envisaged that messages about several sports will be on the board at any one time. The board displays the message “Don’t Waste Murray”
• Due to the weather patterns in Townsville and that a majority of sports are held outside, it was apparent that shade structures are paramount. A 6.0m x 3.0m tent has been purchased and given to the sporting club for use by all clubs. The tent is coloured bright red and displays the message of “Don’t Waste Murray”. The tent is managed by one club and this also will be rotated.
• Additional promotional materials have also been produced and given to clubs free of charge to assist them in selling the concepts of litter management. They have included tattoos and drink bottles.
  
  

  Removable tattoo

Partnerships have also been strengthened between Townsville City Council and the Beverage Industry Environment Council (BIEC).

Council have benefited from BIEC’S staff training on litter management, their injection of funding to make this project possible as well as their enthusiasm in the production of litter management programs.

BIEC have benefited by the further use of their “Don’t Waste Australia” campaign. The benefits and successes of this campaign will be used by BIEC to further promote litter management throughout Australia.

The Townsville City Council and BIEC have worked jointly on a number of litter related projects in Townsville. This project is a culmination of skills and contacts developed through the partnership with BIEC.