The Northern Beaches Council estimated resident population for 2020 is 274,041, with a population density of 1,068 persons/km². In 2016, 28.8% of people in the Northern Beaches Council area were born overseas.

Council is dedicated to a plastic-free Northern Beaches. The Single Use Plastics Policy was adopted by Council in 2017 to encourage responsible procurement and consumption practices within Council and the community.

The Waste Minimisation at Functions and Events Policy requires event organisers to reduce their waste, promote sustainable procurement and increase recycling at public events held on Council property. The Policy and Guidelines ban event organisers selling or distributing single-use plastics, balloons, bottled water and single serve sachets.

Projects

The Council has recently received the NSW EPA Council Litter Prevention Round 6 Grant to produce litter baseline data and costs of litter study to inform litter prevention strategies, actions and litter reduction targets under Council’s proposed Waste and Circular Economy Strategy. The EPA litter prevention business case tools will be used to engage a wide range of stakeholders in developing cost effective options, a shared vision and specific targets for litter prevention and address identified gaps.

The Swap for Good program encourages businesses and school canteens to transition away from single-use plastics items. Resources include an information trifold and guides for behaviour change, sustainable procurement and marketing. A customer- facing poster was developed to promote their sustainable practices. To activate change, the Council’s Waste Education team developed Action Plans and Supplier Lists, making it a holistic program where changes were easy to implement.

During the pandemic the Swap for Good program pivoted to provide advice which aligned safety with waste reduction. Working closely with Environmental Health Officers, NSW Food Authority and NSW Health, a case study and video were produced to show three safe methods for reusable coffee cups. Following this in October 2020, Council offered a float of ‘swap and go’ coffee cups, to support a number of reusable cup systems including Green Caffeen, Huskee, Return and Claycups. This allows individuals to return and swap their reusable coffee cups at any participating café. The program aims to double the number of participating cafes to a total of 60.

The Circular Containers program has also been launched to fund reusable containers at office precincts to help businesses transition to the circular economy. The shared container system is available for caterers and office staff to use and enjoy waste free lunches. Currently, 40 businesses are participating in this initiative. Similarly, to target waste in school canteens, the Council has delivered 500 reusable bento boxes to 10 schools in the Northern Beaches.

The program also created a collaborative space for almost 40 community groups and social enterprises operating in this space to combine strengths and co-create an impactful and unified approach to reduce single-use plastics through the Collaboration Collective. The mission is that community groups and social enterprises that are passionate about waste and litter reduction work collaboratively to actively engage with Northern Beaches businesses, schools and communities to swap out single-use plastic. Examples of achievement by member groups:

• Operation Straw runs regular underwater clean-ups to remove single- use plastic straws in Manly
• Our Blue Dot decided to align closely with Council’s ‘swap and go’ coffee cup program. They hit the streets and talked to more than 60 local cafes and helped set 30 cafes up with Green Caffeen.
• In 2021, 12 community groups worked collaboratively for the Seaside Scavenge event in May.

The Council has worked collaboratively with Macquarie University and AUSMAP to track and identify sources of microplastics impacting the Dee Why Lagoon and catchment. The Reducing Litter in the Dee Way Lagoon Catchment, Solutions for the Future project has won the Keep Australia Beautiful – Sustainable Cities Award in 2020.

The Council has run a litter bug campaign at Manly Beach every summer.

The Council has recently introduced QR codes to target hotspot bins which the community can use to alert the Council of overflowing bins.

Hotspots

The Council’s cleansing team has a record of litter hotspots in the LGA (e.g., Little Manly Beach, Dee Why commercial, South Steyne Beach, etc.). The Council will be identifying further hotspots and conducting local litter checks to inform waste education and prevention strategies.