For the past six years, Cleanaway has been working side-by-side Gympie Regional Council to help educate the community about the importance of recycling and correct waste management. 

This year to help promote the recycling message, Cleanaway, in conjunction with the Council, decided to hold a Truck Art Competition for primary schools in the Gympie region.

Students were encouraged to help promote recycling in the community by designing a colourful mural for the Cleanaway split system collection truck. The key criteria for a winning design were that it needed to show the different sections of the split system truck (i.e recycle and refuse), as well as examples of both recyclable and general waste. 

The colourful array of entries were judged by Cleanaway’s Education Facilitator Elli Webb and Gympie Regional Council Environmental Health Officer Tanya Allen, who said it was hard to choose a winner. 

“We received approximately 1000 entries this year, all of which were extremely creative and did a great job in promoting the recycling message,” Elli said. 

“Although there was some stiff competition, this year, Kia Ora State School won the mural design competition.  

“The school’s entry clearly showed the correct recycling rules and how sad it is to send rubbish to landfill,” Elli said. 

Representatives from the Gympie Regional Council and Cleanaway visited the Kia Ora Primary School to present the award and unveil the split system truck, which had the mural enlarged and printed on its side, along with the name of the school.  

Gympie Mayor Ron Dyne congratulated Kia Ora students for taking part in the competition and praised their commitment to helping promote recycling in their community.

"Gympie Regional Council is committed to partnering with organisations such as Cleanaway to help provide residents and ratepayers with information about simple tasks such as recycling and using waste efficiently which they can take to help reduce impacts on the environment," Cr Dyne said.