Now you can recycle at the track

Caulfield and Sandown Racecourses are amongst the first racing clubs in Victoria to take up the public recycling challenge, looking at ways to minimise waste at their grounds.

A new partnership between Sustainability Victoria and the Alcoa Foundation aims to extend recycling from people’s homes and offices to major community sporting and recreation venues.

Victoria’s recycling activities in 2004-05 saved Victoria more than 78 million gigajoules of energy - enough to power every household in the state for eight months, and 52,321 mega litres of water - enough to fill more than 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Although Victorians have become excellent recyclers at home, we are generating increasing amounts of waste each year.

Major sporting and recreational venues have considerable potential to change the behaviour of the community, with flow on effects to other businesses in catering, waste management and cleaning.

The venues participating in the initiative include the Dandenong Stadium, Skilled Stadium, Sunshine Leisure Centre, the Western Border Football League (Portland, Heywood & Casterton and Melbourne Racing Club.

Spectators at the racecourse should look out for the clearly marked rubbish and recycling stations and make the effort to put their waste in the right bin.

Why recycle

By reducing, reusing and recycling as much as possible we will be saving water and energy and cutting down on greenhouse gases.

Did you know?

• Recycling glass saves 74% of the energy it takes to make glass from raw materials.
• Recycling aluminium saves a significant amount of energy. Producing 20 cans from recycled materials uses the same power as making one can from raw materials.
  

To find out more information on recycling and other simple ways to reduce your environmental impact go to www.resourcesmart.vic.gov.au