The Halve Waste Group of councils, which includes Wodonga and Albury, have taken out the 2019 Re-Use Champions Award recognising the way council and the community embraced this year's Garage Sale Trail reuse program.
They were one of just ten councils to receive an award for their involvement in the campaign which is supported by 140 councils around Australia.
Garage Sale Trail co-founder Darryl Nichols said the award is the result of a committed and passionate approach by all the council officers, Elected members along with MRA Consulting and AWARE Upcycle and Recycle Shop staff involved.
"Through their involvement and promotion of the program, The Halve Waste Group of Councils, demonstrated great leadership in sustainability and reuse and ultimately helped make this year's Garage Sale Trail such a success both locally and nationally," he said.
"The Halve Waste Group of councils returned to the Trail for their second year and well and truly blazed the reuse Trail with a car boot sale hosted at the AWARE Upcycle and Recycle Shop.
With features on Prime 7, The Border Mail and the support of both City of Albury Mayor, Kevin Mack and City of Wodonga Deputy Mayor, Kat Bennett in Trail Blazers, the campaign well and truly spread the reuse message across the region.
Cr Bennett said there were more than 287 events that took place locally on October 19 and 20, with an estimated 5845 people involved.
Importantly, each garage sale on the Trail saw an estimated 500kg of items saved from landfill.
Garage Sale Trail is Australia's biggest reuse, waste education and community engagement program.
The event is powered by local councils and encourages communities to rethink what they waste through the simple act of buying and selling at a garage sale over one weekend in October.
Nationally, Garage Sale Trail 2019 saw more than 400,000 Australians getting involved at more than 24,000 garage sale events on just one weekend.
Garage Sale Trail 2020 takes place on October 17 and 18 and residents can pre-register at www.garagesaletrail.com.au
