Wollondilly Shire Council

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• Mulch Your Patch

  Mulching your garden beds improves soil health and prevents water loss through evaporation.
  
  Mulching is the number one rule for water conservation in your garden. Adding mulch to your garden beds can prevent water loss by up to 25 per cent, reducing evaporation rates and increasing the water storage capacity of your soil.
  
  Soil is the starting point for life in the garden (and in the forest, bush and grassland). It is continually being made in one of nature's great cycles. We can't ma…

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• Nurture and Conserve Biodiversity

  Create an urban refuge for local biodiversity and enjoy the visual elements, the sounds and serenity of nature in your own backyard.
  
  Nature is something special. It's not just about trees and animals, but also the way they interact with one another and the uniqueness of these relationships. From birds, bats and koalas to insects and worms, they all have an important role to play.
  
  By fostering biodiversity in your backyard you are supporting a diverse variety of plants, animals and micro-o…

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• Grow an Indigenous Garden

  Growing indigenous and endemic plants in your backyard helps extend remnant patches of native fauna, attracts native wildlife to your garden and conserves biodiversity. So get your hands dirty and enjoy the rewards.
  
  Climate change poses real threats to indigenous flora and fauna, much of which is already under threat from urbanisation and modern agricultural practices. It is more important than ever that we do our bit to protect habitats. By using indigenous plants in your own garden you can cr…

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• Buy renewable electricity

  Every time you use electricity in your home greenhouse gases are belched out on your behalf. So buy the clean stuff!
  
  By purchasing 100 per cent Federal Government accredited GreenPower renewable electricity you are instantly switching your electricity dollar from a traditional coal-burning power plant to one of a combination of renewable sources of electricity generation (e.g. wind, hydro, biomass and solar) and stopping approximately 10 tonnes of CO2 / year (for an average home) from being rel…

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• Harvest and use your rainwater

  Install a rainwater tank to collect and store rain hitting your roof and use it to water your garden, wash your clothes or fill your toilet.
  
  By capturing and using the rain that falls on our houses - water that currently flows into the stormwater drain - we are taking another step in increasing our water efficiency and conserving this precious resource. Have a plumber redirect your down pipes into a tank for storage and install pumps and pipes to service some of your household water needs. By t…

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• Make your renovations green

  Renovations are the ideal opportunity to make your house more efficient and sustainable. Try these tips and feel good about your home.
  
  From the design through to the construction of your renovation, opportunities exist to lighten your environmental footprint. These changes can range from short-term aspects (e.g. safely managing and recycling building waste) to long-term improvements in the energy efficiency of your home.
  
  If you're renovating, explore good design: it can save energy, water…

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• Reduce your stormwater pollution

  By managing your domestic stormwater, you can reduce polluting the waterways we love to swim in, fish and simply enjoy.
  
  The catchment area of our local rivers and waterways includes our houses, gardens, driveways and lawns. The stormwater system uses the gutters, drains, pipes and rivers to quickly remove water from residential and business areas so as to avoid flooding and the resultant damage this incurs.
  
  When the stormwater system is in use (i.e. during a storm), any litter, debris and othe…

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• Eat Organic Food

  Too many pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your food? Try eating organic.
  
  Organic food certification requires that crops and livestock are grown and reared naturally, without artificial fertilisers, synthetic pesticides, chemical feeds, growth-promotion drugs or routine antibiotics. As a result, organic produce is chemical-free, often higher in the nutrients and minerals our bodies require, and most importantly, it can taste better. Also, meat derived from free-range and organic farms co…

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• Avoid Bottled Water

  The Story of Bottled Water
  
  
  
  Avoid bottled water and feel good knowing that you’re saving money, reducing your personal health risks and reducing resource waste in your community.
  
  Humans require plenty of of drinking water each day to keep our bodies hydrated and with our increasingly busy lifestyles, more and more people are purchasing bottled water. In 2009-10 approximately 582.9 million litres of bottled water was consumed (IBISWorld Bottled Water Manufacturing in Australia, January 201…

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• Avoid Eating Endangered Fish

  Avoid eating over-fished and threatened fish species.
  
  Increasing our awareness of which fish are being harvested to the brink of extinction, can help us modify our fish eating and buying habits and cease plundering an invisible ecosystem that is in a state of stress and serious decline. Becoming aware of the impact of caged fisheries on our estuaries, bays, oceans, pond systems and wetlands will help us make informed choices next time we are at the fishmongers.
  
  How to do it now!
  Eat sustainabl…

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• Products

  Decisions about the things we buy can move us toward being sustainable. Thinking about things like the resources used in the products we buy, how efficient they are and their lifecycle can help us make more environmentally friendly purchases.
  How can we reconfigure our retail filters to include our environmental responsibilities?
  
  Products Actions
  
  Purchase recycled products
  From toilet paper to chairs, jackets to dog leads, there are many recycled products that are excellent quality, so conside…

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• Purchase Recycled Products

  From toilet paper to chairs, jackets to dog leads, there are many recycled products that are excellent quality, so consider buying recycled when you buy.
  
  While putting out the recycling rubbish gives us a modest glow of goodness, the often neglected part of the recycling loop is the purchase of products made of recycled material. By actively supporting the reuse of recycled plastics, paper and other materials through purchasing these products we are truly recycling. This way we encourage the gr…

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• Buy Paper and Wood Responsibly

  Help make the harvesting of the world's forests environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Buy Forest Stewardship Council certified timber and wood products.
  
  The clear-felling of the forests of the Amazon or Borneo is done to supply wood and wood products for markets such as Australia. We stop buying it; they stop cutting it. The Forest Stewardship Council is a global certification organisation that allows its label to be used on wood and wood products that have come from fore…

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• Use Non-toxic Cleaners

  Common cleaning products, disinfectants and air fresheners are creating a toxic environment at home. Try natural alternatives for a healthier home and family.
  
  Toxic chemicals in the home impact our health, causing ailments that range from respiratory ailments to cancer. A US EPA study on indoor air quality found that the use of common cleaning products result in levels of several Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that are on average two to five times higher indoors than outdoors. During (and fo…

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• Environmentally Friendly Mindset

  Become aware of the environmental implications of your consumption and purchase those goods that have the least impact on our future.
  
  Understanding the resources embedded in the products we buy and using this knowledge to guide our purchasing decisions is difficult. Advertising is a powerful influence on our purchasing decisions and there is often little information available about the energy, water and other environmental inputs required to produce the things we buy. If we are able to overcome…

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