Garbage is a treasure trove in the small town of Katherine, where waste treatment options are limited.
There is no recycling on the sidewalks or classification in red, yellow and green containers.
A semi-trailer load of crushed beer cans and glass bottles is picked up from a sorting center once a month and taken south, but when it comes to recycling, that’s it.
Max Paez says Junk Festival focuses on the issue of waste management. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
Max Paez, a Junk Festival volunteer, said the event brought the whole city together.
Although the festival, now in its tenth year, could only divert a small amount of rubbish from the landfill, he hoped the message would be clear to take home on the immense and eternal footprint of waste.
“[The festival] it continues to remind people who can make decisions about whether or not we have recycling, which is still something that worries people in our community, ”Páez said.
Sculptures made from discarded materials are submitted to contests at the Junk Fest. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
“We have a few things going on in our community around recycling, but the more we have Junk Fest, the more we bring people together around this common problem, the more we can put a little more pressure on the people who make those decisions.”
Reduce and reuse
Katherine residents have been pushing for more waste treatment options long before the Junk Festival kicks off.
The small town’s landfill of about 10,000 people is aging and needs to close in the next five years, making the need for innovative recycling ideas an urgent issue.
Katherine City Council last year decided not to recycle the expensive one on the sidewalk.
Constantine Bush performed at the festival along with a lineup of local musical talent. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
Performer Constantina Bush said the festival was a perfect opportunity to stress the importance of reducing and reusing, especially as the population grew.
“All these children who are coming now, the millennials, are the ones we will leave the country for,” he said.
“If we don’t take care of it and make more people aware of plastic and the damage it can do to everything, there will be nothing left for children to do.”
Penny Fawkner’s sculpture of a bower bird won her a coveted first prize. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
Penny Fawkner, a resident of Katherine, said that while there was a great need for recycling in her hometown, more focus was needed elsewhere.
“For a small place we have a big footprint,” he said.
“But often what is not talked about enough is the part of reducing and regulating big business to stop being so diffuse and immoral with what they are doing.
“Now they are repressing oil, their new big goal is plastic.”
The Junk Festival encourages people to reduce, recycle and reuse rubbish. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
Turning garbage into a treasure
Dozens of pieces were on display Saturday night for an event that drew 2,600 people, by far their largest audience.
Garbage was turned into clothes for a parade, dancers wore old tents to perform, and the message of reduce, reuse, and recycle was ubiquitous.
“The festival has brought everyone together and drew a lot of attention to an issue of Katherine that worries everyone,” Paez said.
“The way we process our waste is very important to any community.”
Mandy Edge Tootell turned garbage into art to take to the Junk Fest. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)
It came as the options for waste treatment increased.
The federal government announced $ 7.2 million to fund a materials recovery facility in Katherine in February to “ensure that people have access to recycling facilities, especially in this case, glass, tires. , plastic and paper “.
But residents will still have to sort and dispose of their rubbish at the sorting center if they want to recycle their waste.