General News
20 June, 2025
Young leaders share smart recycling tips
AFTER running a winter clothing charity drive and encouraging locals to turn litter into art, the Green Futures Now team is turning its attention to household waste.
Green Futures Now is a Warrnambool City Council program where young people are supported to tackle local environmental issues.
The team will be at the Warrnambool Community Garden’s ‘Soup-er Saturday’ event this weekend, June 21, where they will discuss the best ways to recycle, re-use or responsibly dispose of a range of common items.
Another focus for the young people will be to share information on how people can care for native wildlife, including planting more native species in your garden and knowing what to do when you come across injured or sick wildlife.
Group member Amelia Dumesny said topics would cover which items go in which bin, what to do with e-waste, how to start your own home compost and even what type of leftovers can be safely fed to pets.
“The purpose of this event is to help educate people so it’s a little bit easier to do things the right way,” she said.
“And just clarifying if there were some things that you may not know or are a bit confused about, being able to help you so you can get as many things in the right bin as possible to reduce landfill.”
Fellow group member Edward Higgins said that part of the Green Futures Now program involved learning about local environmental projects already in place, and that had led to the group partnering with the Warrnambool Community Garden.
“If we can work with another team of environmentally-minded people who are also doing something different, everyone benefits,” he said.
“Fostering as many connections between this vast range of community groups… it helps people become better informed.
“Looking at waste, we found that people might have some misconceptions, and just a little bit of education can go a long way.”
Warrnambool Community Gardens convener Courtney Mathew said she was excited to welcome the Green Futures Now team into the ‘Soup-er Saturday’ event, which also serves as a come-and-try day for new volunteers.
“When we were talking to the Green Futures Now crew, who are very aligned with what we want to do, there were all of these great ideas so we thought, let’s collaborate,” she said.
“If you’ve never been here before, or if you’ve come before and you haven’t been for a while, we’d love to invite everyone down.
“We’ll have lots of free hot soup on offer for people so you can leave with a warm, toasty heart and a cup of soup.”
‘Soup-er Saturday’ will run tomorrow, Saturday June 21 from 9am-2pm at the Warrnambool Community Garden on Grieve Street.
Green Futures Now is funded by the Warrnambool City Council, with additional support from the Glenelg Hopkins CMA through the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust program and the Victorian Government’s Our Catchments Our Communities Program.
