I have always been an avid supporter of recycling, it concerns me that so much of our waste stream goes to landfill when it can be recovered and reused.

When I was elected to Swan Council I worked on a committee as council delegate on local waterways including Bennett Brook.

Around 1997 I was part of a group that applied for a Natural Heritage Trust grant to undertake a study of “The Vanishing Floral Heritage of the Swan Valley”. As part of the study a 100 page colour book was published by the project coordinator Mr Bevan Carter. It is a great reference book on flora in our area and copies were presented to the City of Swan to be made available at libraries.

When the Urban Hills land Catchment District committee was formed I continued my interest working with people that had a passion for the hills environment.

Natural Resource Management changed in the early 2000’s to come under larger land management districts. There are 56 across Australia forming the national NRM strategy. The Perth Region has five Sub-regional areas defined by their natural resource characteristics.

The regions are North, North-East, East, South and Coastal more can be found here. The PRNRM website home is www.perthregionnrm.com

I was particularly pleased when Hon Ian Campbell, then Federal minister for the environment and assisted with support from Hon Judi Moylan, member for Pearce, funded a pilot light industry program to target industrial groundwater pollution. The Australian award winning program has been very effective but needs to be expanded Australia wide. Water is one of our most valuable assets and industry must understand their impacts upon it.

In 2011 the PRNRM Board decided to restructure from a representative Board to a skills based Board. I have been actively involved in this process and have been appointed one of the three new Board members.

Recycling In the Business Environment

As President of the Malaga and Districts Business Association I was involved in a large recycling program in conjunction with the City of Swan and the EMRC.

Malaga has a large number of manufacturing industries that have wood as a bi-product of their activity. A kerbside collection was undertaken with many tonnes of material being collected and converted to chipboard.

Last updated Jan 2012

Natural Resource Management (NRM)