Time to give yourself a pat on the back. Since the OK Organics Kiama initiative was introduced, there has been a 40 per cent decrease in the LGA’s waste going
to landfill.

“I’m proud to say our residents have strongly embraced OK Organics Kiama and we are now recycling or composting more than 75 per cent of household waste,” says Waste Management Officer, Josephine St John.

The service has been recognised by recently winning the 2017 Local Government NSW Community Waste Services Award (for populations up to 30,000 people).

“We’re really proud of the OK Organics Kiama service and are thrilled with how the community has taken it up,” Ms St John says.

“This award shows how innovative smaller councils, like Kiama, can be.”

She says OK Organics Kiama resulted from Kiama losing its last landfill site in 2006.

“For many years we had the signif-icant expense of paying other councils to use their landfill sites, which forced us to look at ways to reduce our waste.”

She credits the success of the new service was largely due to a strong emphasis on community engagement.

Mayor Mark Honey has congratulated the waste management team on their award.

“The success of OK Organics Kiama is due to the excellent planning and implementation by our waste management staff, as well as their tireless efforts
every day to make it a success.”