MAINTAINING a sustainable lifestyle is a top priority for Mount Gambier scout Colby Ind who has received an invitation to the 2020 National Plastics Summit at Parliament House.
Coordinated by the National Waste and Recycling Taskforce, Colby will be one of 14 scouts nationwide attending the day-long event as part of a youth taskforce to discuss solutions to the country’s waste challenge.
Entering a submission to attend the environmental event hosted by the Federal Government, Colby will have the opportunity to be a part of the solution to the nation’s waste strategy.
“I had to write an essay about why I wanted to go to Canberra and learn about living a more sustainable lifestyle,” Colby said.
“We will learn about single use plastics and how we can help change and make new things out of plastics.”
Colby expressed his interest in environmental science following a visit to Robe’s Transmutation store.
“They showed me how they make things like coasters and doorknobs out of plastics such as styrofoam and coffee cup lids,” he said.
“In my submission I also spoke about how we need to encourage people to try new things and do different things because it is not always expensive and it will pay off.
“I also spoke about how the Men’s Shed uses mud flaps from trucks to make new garden beds, because mudflaps are the second biggest expense in the trucking industry and they are made of a plastic that cannot be recycled so it is also about repurposing old products.”
Colby said maintaining an environmentally sustainable lifestyle included using reusable bags for family shopping trips, reusable containers for lunches and to repurpose objects before discarding them.
“Some of the things I think I will learn on the trip is how to better recycle things and not just throw them out,” he said.
“We try and do a lot of recycling at home by using reusable bags, washing the labels off of jars and we try not to use bread tags or plastic straws.”
Colby has been a part of the Penola Scouts for almost five years, something he said has increased his knowledge in the sustainable lifestyle.
“We learn a lot about the environment and being sustainable and with the program there will be goals that we have to meet including going zero waste for a week and taking our next shopping trip to a second hand store instead of buying new clothes,” he said.
“Mostly I am looking forward to speaking with other people from around Australia and hearing about their ideas and what they do at home.”
Colby hopes to further implement his new knowledge into the wider community following the national event.
“I want to bring back ideas that we can do as a community to try and reduce our waste intake,” he said.
Colby will fly to Canberra on Sunday ahead of Monday’s summit.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley are both scheduled to attend the event.
