Menai Marketplace is achieving some big wins in its own war on waste.
Centre manager Jacqui Bell said, in July this year, 10.5 tonnes of organic waste was diverted from landfill and converted into liquid waste.
This was the biggest quantity diverted since the system was installed in November, 2017, she said.
Ms Bell said the amount of cardboard being recycled rose from 4.5 tonnes in July, 2017, to 6.4 tonnes a year later.
The centre had also achieved an 18 per cent reduction in water use over the past year as a result of the use of single flush toilet systems, automatic taps and building services “real time” monitoring to detect leaks.
Ms Bell said energy use had been cut by 15 per cent in a year by changing the time services for the centre, such as air conditioning, were operating and using “real time” monitoring.
Reverse vending machines had accepted more than three million containers since being installed in January this year, while there was a reduction in the use of plastic bags and drinking straws during Plastic Free July when the centre distributed bio-degradable straws and multi-use bags to most stores.
“Menai Marketplace is a real community hub and we want to do the right thing for our locals, and our planet,” Ms Bell said.
“We wouldn’t have achieved these amazing results without the support from our customers and our retailers.”
