Coca Cola Behaves like an Arse-Plate

Column: News | Date Published: Tuesday, 26 February 13 | Author: Ashley Thomson | 2 months, 3 weeks ago

Right now, a group of beverage industry giants led by Coca Cola are taking the Northern Territory Government to court for starting the territory’s first ever ‘Cash for Containers’ recycling scheme. For those of you who’ve never looked closely at the side of a soft drink bottle, Cash for Containers is a scheme offering a small recycling incentive which has been running in South Australia for over 30 years. By offering a 10 cent per container deposit refund for consumers, recycling rates there are now double those across the rest of the country. But Coca Cola wants none of it – even though enormous amounts of research show this is the best possible way to curb the wastage from the 14 billion plastic containers used by Australians every year, and 80 percent of Australians support a national Cash for Containers scheme. Coke’s solution, by the way, is to put more bins out, for which they will not foot the bill. Anyway, if you can be bothered, visit greenpeace.org.au/action/?cid=35&src=EMAA to sign a petition destined for politicians’ desks which supports a push for a national Cash for Containers scheme.

	The Front’s Centenary Exhibition calls for Submissions: As part of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations The Front will be curating a special exhibition and invite you to contribute a work for this collaborative collection. The exhibition will coincide with the Centenary of Canberra Lyneham Party at the Shops event on Friday March 15, which will include an outdoors stage, bands, spoken work and poetry, artist paste-ups and live works and market stalls. To express interest to participate in this collaborative exhibition reply to front.gallery@gmail.com email with: your name and contact details; a short description of your work; the dimensions of the work you would like to contribute; a photo (if possible); and, if you intend to have your work for sale, include the price. Works will need to be dropped off at The Front on Mon/Tue March 4/5 to be hung that week. The official opening of the exhibition will be on Friday March 15 but will be open to the public from Sunday March 10 until Sunday March 17. Limited places are still available at the market stalls at the Party at the Shops event. If you are interested in having a space to sell your work outdoors contact Karen Radford at glossywords@gmail.com to discuss.
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	Belconnen Arts Centre to hold Int’l Women’s Day Forum: The United Nations International Women’s Day theme for 2013 is The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum, and focuses on the status of women internationally and improvements – paradigm shifts – made in arenas globally. To mark IWD 2013, Belconnen Arts Centre presents Paradigm Shifts, a public forum bringing together three Canberra-based women to provide insight into the paradigm shifts in their own working worlds and areas of interest. The program, moderated by Genevieve Jacobs, Mornings Presenter, ABC 666 Radio, will present Fran Raymond (National Board Member of UN Women Australia), Melissa Clarke (federal political reporter for ABC News 24) and Dr Louise Hamby (Adjunct Fellow at the Australian National University) in a public forum in which each woman will discuss the major changes and challenges in their own professional arenas. The talks will take place at Belconnen Arts Centre on Wednesday March 6, 5:30-7pm. For more info, call (02) 6173 3300 or email info@belconnenartscentre.com.au. Tickets are $10; to book, visitparadigmshifts.eventbrite.com.au.
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	Us Folk Magazine Celebrates 1st Birthday: Since the launch of their first issue in March 2012, Us Folk have continued to promote emerging young artists, photographers, designers and writers from Canberra and the surrounding region. BMA can, without a hint of shame, declare untold admiration for Us Folk’s consistently magnificent style and content. Within only one year of their first issue they are soon to release their fourth, coinciding somewhat perfectly with their one-year anniversary. Their fourth issue upholds their ethos of supporting home-grown talent, featuring illustrations, articles and photography from a range of volunteers who have given their time and energy – all for the love of contributing to a local Canberran publication. They will be launching their fourth issue at La De Da on Friday March 15 from 7pm, so get along to grab a copy and wish them happy birthday. For more info, visit us-folk.com.
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