A Guide to Sustainability in Ashburton
- scraze
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Today I did my duty as a parent and helped supervise the “Year 5/6 Community Walk” for my kid’s class. Being a parent supervisor is a cross between being a cat herder and a parrot who can only yell “Keep Left!!” It’s a humbling experience because you learn that other people’s kids don’t listen to anything you say either.
But I digress… because this Walk was for the kids to learn more about sustainability efforts in the local area and that can only be a good thing. Even though I consider myself pretty clued up on the sustainability front, I did learn a few things I thought I would share here.
The Ashburton Community Garden
Now that the Markham Housing Estate is occupied, great effort has been made to landscape the surrounding area. Requests for a community garden in Ashburton date back to the early 1980s. The Ashburton Community Garden has been tucked into the pocket behind the Markham Reserve Pavilion since it opened in October 2009.
There are currently no plots available but if you’re a keen gardener and looking to make some garden-loving friends, you can apply for a spot on the waiting list through the website. They do most of their meeting up on Friday.
There is apparently a banana plant in there and although it’s yet to produce any bananas, if the climate keeps up what it’s doing, it’s only a matter of time.
The Kooyong Koot Alliance
First formed a few years ago to provide representation for nature-loving Friends groups, Kooyong Koot Alliance’s activities in Ashburton include helping to grow grasses and natural vegetation for insects and birds around the Ashburton section of Kooyong Koot. They also give talks to recalcitrant school children on their activities and why it’s never a good idea to build a homemade bike track through the areas they are trying to look after.
Despite the very dry start to the year, the grasses around the former Ashburton Forest are growing nicely. It’s looking really quite lovely down there these days.
The Ashburton Community Centre Eco Hub
At ACC we met Barb, who told a story I’ve heard many times from various people of a certain age. It was about how when Chinese Restaurants first came to Australia in the early 1960s, people used to take their saucepan down to have it filled with their food that they would then carry home.
It’s interesting how this story is now told as an example of sustainability rather than as “what life was like before small, portable, mass-produced plastic containers were invented”.
The good news about recycling is that you can now recycle a lot more than you used to a lot closer to home than you think.
Barb told us about ACC’s Eco Hub and how they have partnered with other organisations to provide a central location to collect:
Plastic and plastic lined cups: 7-Eleven are now running a cup recycling program. You can drop your cups in and they’ll sort the recycling out for you.
Old prescription glasses and hearing aids for the Lions “Recycle for Sight Program”. They send them to people who need them around the world.
Wire coathangers: these are not recyclable but if you take them into ACC, they’ll give ‘em a clean and take them back to the drycleaners on High Street for reusing.
Collected coathangers Bread tags for the Bread Tags for Wheelchairs people who take the little coloured plastic and cardboard bread tags, organise to have them recycled in bulk then use the funds raised to provide wheelchairs across Australia.
Make-up containers for the Terracycle via Priceline program. This includes eyeshadow containers, lipsticks and mascaras but not nail polish or makeup brushes.
Manual toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and dental floss picks for the Colgate Oral Care Free Recycling program. Also provided by Terracycle, they take electric toothbrush heads too.
Toothpaste and toothbrushes Batteries through the B-cycle Battery Stewardship Scheme. You can also recycle batteries at Ashwood Woolworths, Chadstone Coles, Officeworks, Bunnings and Good Guys these days too.
Printer cartridges through Officeworks and Planet Ark. Officeworks also takes old hard disks, pens and markers, audio and tech accessories.
Corks: If you’re a champagne, prosecco or sparking wine addict, take your natural corks in and they’ll take them to Dan Murphy’s for his Re-Cork program. They get recycled into footwear lining! You can also take them down to the Chadstone store directly.
E-waste: Taken in your old phone or tablet and ACC will send it to Eco Activ Group for recycling.
It would be great to see something locally done about clothing. The Ashy Op Shop is inundated with unsellable clothing and it costs them a fortune to deal with it. Instead of dumping on them, take clothing, towels, sheets, old socks and undies to H&M or Zara the next time you’re near one.
Soft plastics, chip packets and chocolate wrappers
I had not realised that silver chip packets can now be recycled with soft plastics (plastic you can scrunch up). These items can be taken to the Recycling and Waste Centre on Riversdale Road for recycling. They are taken to APR Plastics and turned into new items. Woolworths are trialling taking them again – after the heart-breaking debacle of the RedCycle collapse – you can take your soft plastics into the Woolworths at Ashwood, Brickworks and Hawthorn East if you’re willing to trust them again.
What can’t be recycled in Boroondara
Boroondara Council has a good guide to what you cannot recycle, what you can and how to go about it. Last year’s Annual Report didn’t give much insight into its recycling efforts so hopefully the new more environmentally aware Councillors will set some more ambitious goals and take some accountability.
Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of items that can’t be recycled because the technology isn’t there yet and sometimes because Boroondara’s recycling program isn’t either. But don’t despair, there are options.
Chux wipes: The process to make these is too complicated for them to be recycled. There are biodegradable ones available that you can put in your compost bin.
Cigarette butts: These can’t be recycled so you may as well just quit now. Or take up vaping - you can return e-cigarettes through the Return Unwanted Medicine Program. Oh, the irony.
Disposable gloves: These can be recycled but not through the Council program. If you use a lot of them and you’re not dealing with infectious skin diseases, doing surgery, amputations, or a serial killer, you can recycle them through Terracycle.
Juice, soy milk and long-life milk cartons (i.e Tetra Paks): These can NOT be recycled in Boroondara’s recycling program. But they can if you live in Monash.
Lids: You should keep your lids ON your jars, bottles and cartons as they cannot be recycled separately.
Pillows: contain synthetic materials too difficult to break down so can only go in household waste. There is a company called Go Kindly that can recycle them but only those they’ve made themselves. If you’re in the market for some new pillows, check them out.
Pizza boxes: if they’re not greasy they can go in the recycling bin. If they’re really greasy… nope.
Plant pots: You can’t put these in the recycling bin but if they’re still in good shape, you can take them to Notting Hill Bunnings for re-using.
Stuffed animals: The Council doesn’t mention what you can do with these but it turns out Big W have a Toys for Joy program that will take them, to every parent’s great relief.
Tea bags: They have soft plastics in them and can’t be recycled. Time to buy a teapot.
Now the Chinese restaurants will no longer let you take your saucepan in but you can:
Use reusable bread bags at Brumby’s and Bakers Delight
Take your reusable plastic containers to buy your meat at the butchers
Use mesh bags for your fruit and vegetables
Just carry your wine from Vintage Cellars (no-one cares, especially if it’s Friday and you have a couple of kids in tow)
Get rid of good condition children's books at the Community Bank.
Visit the Ashy Op Shop to refresh your clothes and buy gifts.
If you’ve got some tips on sustainability specific to Ashburton, let me know in the comments or drop me a line!
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