NEWS

Mallacoota's population swings from 1,100 permanent residents to around 10,000 in peak summer, and every one of those extra visitors brings extra rubbish with them. The Mallacoota Foreshore Holiday Park and Friends of Mallacoota built a simple fix: trailers placed around the park let guests sort their eligible containers for the Victorian container deposit scheme instead of tossing them in general waste, with volunteers from Friends of Mallacoota collecting and depositing the

When Rochester lost its container recycling collection point, the Lions Club didn't wait for someone else to fix it. They opened a shed on Baynes Street and ran it themselves. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the depot takes cans, bottles and plastics, counts them by hand, and pays residents in cash, EFT, or donations to charity, with a handling fee from the scheme going straight back into the local community. What's grown alongside it is arguably just as valuable: four Year 9