Sustainability partnerships, 2022-23

Raising awareness and changing behaviours in response to the NSW single-use plastics bans.

Did you know we generate over 800,000 tonnes of plastic waste in NSW every year? But just 12% of this plastic is recycled.

Obviously, this situation is creating massive waste, litter and pollution problems, not just for us but for our environment as well. But NSW has some pretty ambitious goals to deal with it.

Through our 17 partners, we shared messages. We talked about the upcoming bans and sustainable alternatives, we showed how businesses could offload excess stock, and we told local success stories.

And we reached almost 1,000,000 individuals directly.

By partnering with these organisations, they could develop customised programs specially for their communities and networks, such as podcasts for busy students on the move, or sharing postcards about the bans with meal deliveries for elderly clients. We could work with our partners by shaping content, sharing key messages, and providing subject matter experts to help educate communities.

Summary

The 2022 Sustainability Partnerships have been vital to help shape the future of how partnerships are carried out at the NSW EPA. Partnering with such a wide array of organisations, which already have an engaged audience, extends the reach of the overall message. 

The people and organisations that were part of these activities had a genuine interest in caring for our environment. This ensured that there was an additional incentive besides just carrying out a project deliverable. Special care was placed into every aspect of the partners projects, from its design, implementation and monitoring, the results were high quality and fit for purpose outcomes that the EPA would not have been able to achieve on its own.

We hope these results are the foundation of how we work with the wider community and together help shape the transition to the circular economy for NSW and improve the state’s natural environment. We are proud to share the stories of our partners, highlighting the importance of the work by community-led environmental projects across NSW, and share the collective learnings with everyone.

See the case studies for more information.