MEC NEWS – NOVEMBER  2024
MEC NEWS – NOVEMBER  2024

MEC NEWS – NOVEMBER  2024

MILANG ENVIRONMENT CENTRE -corner of Weeroona Drive and Jupiter Street Milang.
Ph:85370201 Email: milangenvironmentalcentre@gmail.com
OPEN: 10 AM – 4 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY

The Milang Environmental Centre (MEC) may only be open two days each week but there is always something going on that requires volunteers to sacrifice time and energy to complete tasks and projects. For example, the big, yellow Hino truck is sometimes seen parked along Amaroo Road fully loaded and ready for volunteer driver Terry Garbet to transport bulk crushed recyclable containers to “Super-Collector” depots north of Adelaide. Alistair McInnes was on the MEC site recently during a closed day to help with weed control. Volunteer Chris Lambert is often at the site on closed days providing access for mechanics and other trades people to service and maintain equipment, machinery, and vehicles. Behind the scenes, often working at home, volunteers Don Boyce and Geoff Dungey ensure MEC administration and finance tasks are completed and up to date. And training is on-going.

 MEC volunteers Mathew Goodwin and Geoff Dungey share a joke while counting recyclables.

PROJECT “CLEAN-UP”

After a new roof was recently installed on one of the MEC shed buildings a clean-up project was undertaken by two Milang ladies Sue and Pam. This intrepid duo has not only disposed of many ancient items that have been left and stored long-term at MEC, but they have also thoroughly cleaned the building, dislodging dust and spiders that recall The Great War of 1914-1918.  Thanks to this training program some of the male “dinosaur” volunteers have learnt how to clean and organise a shed. “It’s a miracle!” said MEC boss Don Boyce

Tally sheet on which volunteers record a running total of crushed recyclable items inside storage bags. Red figures indicate a volunteer is not confident and while it took a significant number of attempts to calculate the correct tally of 101 -they finally got it right!
 

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH TRAINING

MEC is a busy, well organised, efficient recycling depot operation as a direct result of two factors:

  1. On-going training of MEC volunteers
  2. Lyla’s freshly baked cakes.
    Sophisticated machinery and equipment used at MEC requires continuously fine-tuning the knowledge and skills of the operators. For that reason, MEC provides constant on-the-job training for volunteers. For example, accurate counting, tallying and recording of the number of recyclable items brought in by customers and processed is essential as any error has a flow-on impact on payment, storage and transportation. MEC volunteers are mostly skilled mathematicians and statisticians who regularly undertake additional training to ensure skill levels remain high and counting, tallying, recording numbers is accurate.
The fall-back Plan B accessory tool available to MEC volunteers having trouble adding numbers.
 
A MEC Count Card inside a bin with counted cans. Note the several crossed out attempts made by volunteers before the correct number was finally recorded (31).

MEC NEEDS MORE VOLUNTEERS: Anyone interested in being a MEC volunteer, actively learning about recycling, operating machinery, driving tractors, trucks, forklifts, enjoying delicious cakes, long tea breaks, meeting residents from across the region, please contact MEC by phone or email or personally 10 am – 4 pm Wednesday or Saturday.     

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