• Energy

  • Energy and the Zoo

• Take Action

  • Resources
  • They're Calling on You
  • Things You Can Do
  • Wildlife and Your Garden
  • Choose your seafood wisely

• Water Treatment and Recycling

• Waste Management

• Animal Food Production

• Habitat Restoration

  • Habitat Simulation

• Zoo Plants

  • The Floral Clock

The ZPB uses a whole range of initiatives to manage its waste effectively. The principles of Avoid, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are used on a daily basis to ensure we are diverting as much material as possible from ending up in our landfill.

Around the Zoo grounds there are bins situated in stations to manage and recycle public waste. The bins are colour coded in accordance with NSW standard for public place recycling.

This is only one part of how our Zoos reduce waste. Behind the scenes, our staff are actively involved in reducing in-house wastes by:

• Recycling paper and cardboard
• Using shredded office waste paper for animal bedding
• Reusing chipped wood waste for landscaping
• Returning packaging / cardboard boxes to supplier
• Recycling toner cartridge
• Recycling Mobile phones
• Reducing food scraps through the use of divisional composts and worm farms

Why should I Avoid, Reduce Reuse Recycle?

Every day each one of us produces waste as we go about out normal activities. Ideally we should try and avoid waste altogether. By doing simple things like saying no thanks to plastic bags or opting for products that haven't been over packaged, we can all make a difference. Unless rubbish can be reused or sent for recycling, it will end up in licensed landfill. Space for landfill sites in Sydney alone is running out, we all need to do something about avoiding and reducing the amount of waste we produce.

Managing our waste by recycling it also makes sense for energy and water conservation!

Did you know?

Making aluminium cans from recycled cans used 95% less energy compared to using raw materials.

The process used to make recycled paper uses 99% less water and around 40% less energy per tonne of paper (which is approx 400 reams of paper). This saves 278000 litres of water and 2 tonnes of carbon emissions (source: Planet Ark)

Here are some great sites which you may find useful

www.greenpagesaustralia.com.au

www.sydneywater.com.au (Sydney Water)

www.environment.nsw.gov.au (NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change)

www.dwe.nsw.gov.au (NSW Department of Water and Energy)