Household Chemical Waste CALD Engagement Program
The Household Chemical Program is an initiative of the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in collaboration with the Ethnic Communitiesโ Council of NSW (ECCNSW).
The objectives of this program was to create a foundation of knowledge and awareness amongst CALD communities by identifying household chemicals, informing the safest ways of storage and disposal of those chemicals, increasing understanding of the waste system and recognising the environmental impact of household chemicals deposited in landfill.
This program was delivered through workshops in targeted languages as well as information through ethnic media and attendance at community and cultural events.
There were 52 Workshops held in various local councils across the Sydney metropolitan area reaching over 700 members of the CALD community. Apart from the existing groups, this program enabled partnerships with TAFE, NAVITAS and English centres which helped broaden the reach to include the most recently arrived migrants and refugees.
Eight workshops were presented to adult English students at Fairfield, Padstow and Parramatta. The Household Chemicals Program offered workshops to multicultural childcare centres targeting parents, teachers and children. As a result of these presentations, one of the participating childcare centres has implemented a rostered collection station at its premises where items can be left to be transported to relevant cleanout collections or to the Liverpool community recycling centre.
Ethnic media was another popular and effective medium used by many CALD seniors to learn and understand the messages of the Household Chemical Program. ECCNSW was able to facilitate 11 ethnic radio interviews and short video recordings that benefited a broader audience. The Program was widely promoted and as a result five articles, containing information from the workshops in written form, were uploaded on the ECCNSW website, the SBS website, other ethnic community radio websites, as well as articles in ethnic newspapers.
