Media Releases

Last Thursday night the City of Canning won the Community Engagement Award at the annual WasteSorted Awards 2023. The WasteSorted Awards acknowledge innovative solutions and excellent performance in reducing waste and meeting targets in Western Australia’s Waste Strategy.

The City of Canning’s submission, Waste education transcends cultural boundaries, outlines the work the City has done to strengthen Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities’ knowledge of correct waste sorting behaviours.

Since October 2022 the City’s Cultural Ambassadors have worked alongside the City’s Strategic Waste Team, to inform waste education planning, improve their waste sorting skills and spread waste reduction and recycling messages to their communities at local events.

Organised by the Ambassadors, the events included the Indonesian/Malaysian Australia Day, Arabic, Burmese and Chinese school holiday programs, pop up stalls and activities across Canning.

Participants got to take some of the education they received home with them, in the form of recycling magnets and stickers, waste guides and How to Sort your Waste Flyers, which are available in 15 different languages on the City’s website.

Mayor Patrick Hall said he is very pleased to see the City’s Strategic Waste team recognised for the amazing work they are doing in promoting the waste reduction message across Canning, particularly to the harder to reach segments of the community.

“It’s great to see our Strategic Waste Team and Cultural Ambassadors coming together to help educate our community on how they can make positive changes to their waste disposal behaviours.

“In Canning we have a rich cultural diversity where 51% cent of our residents are born overseas, whilst 43% speak a language other than English at home. So, winning the Community Engagement Award for our work on engaging with CALD communities is a great achievement,” Mayor Hall said.

The Ambassadors involved in the project completed a survey which revealed that 67% of them were unsure on how to sort their waste correctly prior to engaging with the waste team. After working with the City, 78% said they were very confident to share their knowledge with their community.

Photo credit: Matt Jelonek