The City of Geraldton in Western Australia is raising ongoing funds for its swimming pool facility, the Aquarena, through a paper recycling project. The project has raised $20,500 to date, which has funded pool blankets for the leisure pool and a high pressure cleaner.
City of Geraldton’s Aquarena Manager, Colin Hassell, said community members can drop used paper off at a purpose built shed located in the Aquarena carpark.
“Volunteers of the User Group (community volunteers that use the pool and a number of senior citizens) then sort and bundle it up on pallets for transport to Perth,” he said. “It is then recycled into paper products such as house insulation and soil stabilisation products for new land developments.
“Over the past decade the User Group has donated many thousands of dollars to support the facility and, apart from improving service to our patrons, these blankets will also help reduce our operating costs. We currently recycle around 25 per cent of newsprint that comes into town, but that still leaves a very big market out there for more people to start recycling their used paper.”
Colin Hassell said that every tonne of paper recycled saves Council $25 in disposal fees.
“In turn, we now sell each tonne for $100,” he said. “This is a really great scheme with threefold benefits: for the environment, for the Aquarena and in encouraging our volunteers to stay active and get involved – there’s no downside!”
For further information contact Colin Hassell on (08) 9921 8844.
