Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer, Toowoomba Regional Council
- Toowoomba, Australian Capital Territory
- Australia
Topics
7 Comments
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Re: Community Composting in Groups with No Knowledge
2009-07-26 18:44:29 UTC
The reality is that composting does smell (a bit) and does take a bit of effort. So to reduce these barriers your group needs to be incentivised by personal gain.
In my view, the personal gain is using the compost to help grow a productive veggie garden (even if it is in a pot). Thus, I think a project like this has to be long term and about growing herbs or a flower garden etc and then composting is just an element of that.
Home gardeners are quick to see the benefit of having their own compost supply to keep their crops in good condition. Having fresh veggies or a pretty garden as an incentive helps get over the barriers of bad smell and hard work because it becomes a worthwhile project.
For this group in particular, luckily they do have some experience in recycling waste feeding scraps to animals. You could build on this by promoting worm farming instead of traditional bin composting. As this is still feeding scraps to animals a behaviour they have a culture of as you said.
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Please Read: Feedback Sought on New Digest Format
2009-06-14 18:27:34 UTC
Doug, Justin & Brian,
I like the improvements you have made to the digest.
Thanks for a great resource.
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Expressing Environmental Impacts Vividly
2009-06-08 23:27:59 UTC
Here are some from the Australian EPA (Qld) Public Place Recycling program. E.g
"Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a light bulb for 30 hours."
http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/waste/public_place_recycling/
Hope this helps,
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Study of Mobile Educational Unit Effectiveness
2009-05-17 19:52:47 UTC
Im also about to conduct some research into mobile display units. The idea being that Council delivers static displays at many events throughout the year and a mobile unit would be a more professional and efficient (in terms of set up) approach. As youll notice, the back of house motives are leading the investigation more than improved education and awareness.
That said, we are aware that mobile displays can be more infrastructure intensive than a static display of 2D posters and therefore may have a higher capacity for public engagement. We would like to use the modern hands-on museum/zoo displays as case studies to develop a touch-and-feel demonstration of sustainable living concepts.
I haven't seen any information about the effectiveness of mobile displays over standard presentations, but I'll keep an eye out. I look forward to reading other people's experience with mobile displays.
Regards,
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Looking for Comunity Gardens research
2009-04-27 18:26:44 UTC
Hello Arnica,
From my experience I also agree with Cathie about not having the gardens locked up. This puts the responsibility on all the community to look after the gardens and shows that the garden will produce food for everybody to enjoy. That said, when I was working with a community garden that was near a council housing settlement we discovered that a lot of, ah produce misplacement was taking place.
To combat this we confused the unauthorized pickers by planting exotic heritage varieties in the areas most visible when walking past. A juicy ripe red tomato is tempting, but to the uneducated eye, an equally delicious yellow or black tomato just looks off. The same goes for purple broccoli and orange spinach.
It sounds a little harsh as community gardens are for all the community. But it helped reduce casual and pre harvest picking by as much as 80%. This allowed more quality produce to be shared amongst hard working members, their families and the local community.
With good social inclusion campaigns and signage, vandalism should be low and manageable for your campus. But being clever with psychological strategies like; no gate, and weird looking food can also help reduce the culture for community garden abuse.
Regards,
Candice
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Education Tools for Energy Conservation
2009-04-05 18:26:18 UTC
Hi Danielle,
Council is supporting three energy conservation educational (action elements) programs at the moment which you may like to investigate;
1. EnergyWise (an energy appliance tester tool and tips book loaned through our library)
2. Low Carbon Diet (educational workbook for households and community groups)
3. Climate Smart Home Service (retrofit program to fit homes with energy efficient light bulbs and energy monitors etc plus sustainability tips)
All of these programs have been developed by the Qld State Government and are supported at a Local Government level.
Feel free to call for more information +61 7 4688 6773.
Warmest regards,
Candice
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia -
Re: Looking for a Cigarette Butt Costume (or simlar!) to use for a Litter Campaign
2009-03-23 17:13:25 UTC
Hi Fiona,
Noosa Shire Council took an innovative approach at their festivals by supporting a Butt Hunters volunteer group. They all wore second hand 70s safari suits and hunted dropped butts. They looked great. I heard that they received a good response from smokers when they talked about the issue of littered butts and distributed personal butt collectors. This one on one talking is something a mascot cant do.
Regarding the give away ashtrays. My personal opinion is that public funds shouldnt be used to purchase merchandise that supports smokers. That said, I do understand there is a greater problem with butts on beaches. Perhaps some research needs to be done of why people litter cigarette butts. Do they not have access to a container? Perhaps some signs in the beach carparks reminding smokers to bring something to take butts away in would be useful. Or are they just ignorant to environmental issues?
In 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa I saw a beach program where people could borrow an ashtray. A stack of ashtrays were placed near a bin and smokers borrowed one for the day and then returned to empty it and place it back for others. I have no idea if the trays went missing, but Im guessing people would rather leave the trays at the beach then take them back to the car. Unless of course they looked like souvenirs.
Good luck. I appreciate your work for the betterment of Australian beaches.
Candice
You can find a great picture of the Butt Hunters here: plus more resources from Qld Litter.
Candice Laidlaw Thompson
Sustainability Awareness Projects Officer
Toowoomba Regional Council
Australia
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