The national winners of the MobileMuster local government awards have been announced at the ALGA National General Assembly – top gongs went to the City of Sydney and the District Council of Orroroo-Carrieton.
The mobile telecommunications industry’s official recycling scheme, MobileMuster is designed to keep old mobiles and accessories out of landfill and ensure they are recycled safely, securely and ethically.
The not-for-profit, government accredited scheme is funded by major telecommunications companies.
The Local Government awards have been running since 2007, and encourage councils to promote the recycling scheme within their communities.
Minister for Major Projects, Territories and Local Government, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, presented the 2016 awards yesterday at the Assembly.
The City of Sydney took out the award for National Top Collector. The award for National Top Collector per Capita went to the District Council of Orroroo-Carrieton in South Australia.
Across the States and Territories, the gongs went to:
Northern Territory – Alice Springs Town Council
Queensland – Brisbane City Council
Western Australia – Mindarie Regional Council
South Australia – City of Onkaparinga
Tasmania – Break O’Day Council
Victoria – Moonee Valley City Council
New South Wales – City of Sydney
MobileMuster’s Recycling Manager, Spyro Kalos, said the involvement of local government is vital and over the past decade has helped recycle thousands of tonnes valuable resources.
“Councils play a major role in helping us educate and provide convenient drop-off locations within their community,” said Mr Kalos.
“Our local government partners have collected nearly 30 tonnes of mobiles phone components for recycling including approximately 158,000 handsets, 210,000 batteries and 10,700kg of accessories since 2007.”
Mr Kalos said this year was a good effort on behalf of the local governments involved, but there is still more to achieve.
“In the 12 months to April 2016 alone, local councils increased their collections and recycled over 3,640kgs of mobiles, batteries, chargers and accessories with MobileMuster.
“However, with an estimated 25.5 million old mobile phones sitting in drawers either broken or unused around Australia, there is a lot of potential e-waste that could end up in landfill if not recycled.”
The ALGA National General Assembly has been running since Sunday and will conclude today.
