Philippa Childs from Cowra Council was the guest speaker at the August meeting of Cowra Evening CWA.
Accompanied by a video presentation, Philippa spoke about Cowra Council’s street cleaning and kerbside recycling services and the Council’s Material Recycling Facility (MRF) on Glen Logan Road.
All non-recyclable items go to a landfill near the Materials Recycling Facility.
It currently costs Cowra Council around $200,000 for a new landfill pit.
Non-recyclable waste includes plastic bags and soft plastics, bagged recycling, batteries, electrical goods, polystyrene, food scraps, light globes, clothing, crockery and glassware, and nappies.
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There are separate containers for sharps (needles) in public facilities and a large one in Squire Park.
The following items can go in the recycling bin: food cans, drink cans, newspapers and magazines, office paper and mail, cardboard, food and beverage boxes (except for takeaway boxes) clean glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and jugs with clean caps, cartons.
Liquids and grease in any of these items make the whole lot unusable.
At present there is no facility for green waste. E-waste goes to a centre in Parkes.
After a lively question and answer session, Sonia Groen thanked Philippa for refreshing and updating our knowledge and gave her a floral bouquet from the garden of Jill Allen.
The September meeting was open to the public and President Kaye Kilby welcomed the guests who packed the dining room at Club Cowra.
Wendy Dick introduced the guest speaker, Adrian Gorham, representing the National Broadband Network.
His topic was online and phone scams and how to feel more confident in handling them.
So far in 2024,143,106 scams have already been reported.
The actual number will be greater as not everybody files a report.
People are targeted through text messages, emails and phone calls.
All age groups are targeted but the over 65’s are the largest group affected.
Phone scams are the most successful even though they are the most infrequent.
The number used by the scammer is a masked number, and the real number is an overseas one.
Investment scams romance scams, false billing, ‘Puppy’ scams, Phishing, dodgy online shopping sites are the main scams.
Be cautious when you get a text message from a bank, a real bank will not ask you to perform an action via a SMS.
The importance of long, strong passwords was also discussed. A password of 18 characters is the safest. Never save a bank account password online.
www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam is a good resource.
So is IDCARE,1300432273 if you think a scammer has remote access to your device.
They will give you an action plan, but you must act quickly. Adrian said that NBN will never call and ask to access your computer.
Only if you have had a problem with NBN and you have contacted them, would NBN reply.
Ann Apthorpe warmly thanked Adrian for this illuminating talk and gave him a gift on behalf of the branch.
October will be a busy month for our branch with operating the Tearooms at Cowra Show, the Café at the Open Gardens Weekend, the AGM of Central West Group CWA and some members helping at the 3 days of the Australian National Field Days near Orange.
