Narooma Oyster Festival is joining the growing movement of events looking at end-waste reduction.
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Eurobodalla Shire Council sustainability education officer Alex King approached the festival about waste diversion last year but there wasn't time to organise people to monitor bins at the festival.
"That created a great baseline for how we can improve," Ms King said.
For this year's festival on May 5-7, Ms King has 17 Zero Heroes, "volunteers from the community who are as passionate about waste diversion as I am".
The Zero Heroes will be monitoring the festival's bins from 4-8.30pm on Friday, and from 10am to 5pm on Saturday.
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Bins for drink containers, oyster shells
Another initiative is the introduction of two new types of bins.
In addition to the regular red- and yellow-lidded bins for general rubbish and co-mingled recycling, there will be white-lidded bins for beverage containers eligible for the Return and Earn scheme.
The containers collected will be donated to the Moruya branch of Yumaro, a not-for-profit that provides support, training and employment opportunities to disabled people in the Eurobodalla shire.
The other addition is blue-lidded bins to collect oyster shells.
Oyster shells spark interest
"Ever since I announced we would be collecting the shells, so many people have got in contact to ask what we are doing with them," Ms King said.
Council is working with OzFish which uses oyster shells to restore reefs in Queensland and Victoria.
This approach was taken in the Living Shoreline project which used local oyster shells to construct oyster reefs in Wagonga Inlet but more generally "in NSW the fisheries legislation doesn't necessarily allow us to do that as it is considered to be commercial waste", Ms King said.
That is why she is partnering with OzFish to explore what other options are available.
Meanwhile farmers have expressed interest in using the oyster shells for soil improvement and to feed to egg-laying chickens as a source of calcium.
Oysters in art
In late April, Ms King was approached by Megan Cope, a First Nations artist based in Queensland's North Stradbroke Island.
Ms Cope has also contacted Sydney Fish Market and many other places with high volumes of oyster shell waste.
The artist needs 200,000 oyster shells to make an installation that she has been commissioned to make for Sydney Opera House next year.
In previous years the festival has generated as many as 70,000 oyster shells.
This year's festival shells may end up in unexpectedly glamorous surroundings.
The festival's program and tickets can be found here.
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