Penrith City Council
Creating sustainable communities, one paper cup at a time.
The Penrith LGA, located 50kms west of Sydney's CBD is a highly liveable city with a growing economy and a successful, diverse community living in a choice of urban, regional and rural settings.
Over the past decade Penrith has witnessed firsthand the adverse effects of increased severe weather events such as flooding, heatwaves, fires and drought. As the climate continues to change and Penrith’s population grows, it’s important that Penrith City Council responds by decreasing their waste footprint, supporting the circular economy and creating places which are water sensitive, green, cool and rich with biodiversity.
Image: Penrith City Council was names NSW'S most Sustainable City at the 2023 Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable City Awards.
The well-loved area is known as a leader in sustainability, and was named NSW’s most Sustainable City at the 2023 Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable City Awards and have won the Climate Change Adaptation Award at the Local Government NSW Excellence in Environment Awards in 2020.
Waste and litter
Penrith City Council's domestic waste audit found paper cups such as coffee cups in all three household bins, highlighting the community's confusion of paper cup disposal.​
Paper cups are also commonly seen in litter hotspots. Often litter from these hotspots can end up in surrounding water ways and parks, impacting local biodiversity and making it more difficult to capture for safe recycling.
Recycling paper cups
Locals and visitors have been able to recycle paper cups in Penrith for years, and up until July 2024 the area has saved more than 200,000 paper cups across 18 collection locations including Penrith City Council Civic Centre, Penrith Homemaker Centre and local 7-Elevens.
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Penrith City Council continue to encourage resuable options where possible, but use their channels such as Facebook and their website to remind the community of recycling options.
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The community have really enjoyed having a solution to take-away cups when reusable cups are forgotten or not available such as for take-away fast food meals.​​
Image: Simply Cups collection unit at Penrith City Council Civic Centre
Images: 9News Sydney coverage on paper cup recycling and recycled roads in Penrith
“A lot of people stop and ask about the coffee cup recycling station, I explain that this is the only way they are recycled, and otherwise they would end up in landfill. I explained that they couldn’t be recycled in the yellow-lidded recycling bin due to the plastic liner, many customers didn’t realise this, they were really excited that there was a program to support recycling coffee cups.”
- Noleen, Manager of Civic Centre
Building durable roads from cups
Coffee cups and other paper cups are also used in roads such as parts of Jamison Road at South Penrith and Swallow Drive, Erskine Park. Council's Civil Engineers have commented on how well the road is standing up to wear and tear, particularly as the surfaced area sees heavy traffic.
A local school sits across one of these roads with many providing positive feedback on how much quieter the road is compared to the previous.
The recycled roads use more than 50% recycled material including paper cups and glass.
Image: PAK-PAVE™ Roads, recycled roads in Penrith are quieter compared to previous roads.
Other initiatives
The first metropolitan council in Sydney to implement Food Organics, Garden Organics bin collections
Between August 2009 and June 2024, Penrith City Council has managed more than 400,000 tonnes of food organics and garden organics material, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions created by local households.
Community gardens
Participating children centres are supplied with veggie gardens and composting equipment to teach children how to grow their own food and compost food.
Repair and reuse events
Penrith City Council host drop-off and repair events for items such as bikes, clothing and textiles. By supporting repair and reuse, locals are minimising their waste while empowering individuals with skills to learn how to repair and reuse items.
Reuse schemes
To encourage the use of reusable sanitary items and nappies, Penrith City Council ran the Sustainable Choices Scheme. While educating on the long-term impacts of disposables, this scheme also contributed to the overall goal of reducing waste sent to landfill.
This page was last updated in September 2024