Menindee’s annual Waste to Art Competition, held by the Menindee Country Women’s Association, will be held this Sunday, from 10am to 1pm Menindee time at the CWA Hall.
The competition will occur as part of the community markets, which have proven a hit with locals and tourists alike since they were resurrected last year.
Alongside the competition and market stalls, the CWA will be preparing a sausage sizzle and hamburgers.
A fresh vegetable raffle will be drawn on the day, with the prize being donated by a local marketeer who will be running their own vegetable stall.
Lorraine Looney, Secretary of Menindee CWA, said there will be two categories for the competition this year, being ‘plant in a recycled pot,’ and ‘article made out of recycled materials.’
“The article category will be open to the imagination, and for the plant in a recycled pot category, it gets people used to thinking about recycling,” she said.
“I think I’ve been born with it, fair dinkum.”
A life-long avid recycler, Ms Looney says, “I’ve collected all my life, and it’s just been second nature to me. I think I’ve been born with it, fair dinkum.”
In previous years, she entered her works in the Mildura Show because, “the family entered horses, but I didn’t ride a horse, so I entered in these competitions”.
In 2022 Ms Looney won the ‘whatever your heart desires’ section of the competition. Here, she reused packaging to create orange, lemon and cinnamon flavoured sugars, and made cleaning products with orange peel and vinegar. She also used old tea bags, coffee grounds and eggshells for placement in the garden.
Last year, the ‘plant in a recycled pot’ section of the competition was won by first-time entrant Jane McEwan, who’s Menindee CWA President.
For those wishing to enter the competition, Ms Looney said, “all they have to do is turn up with something and hand it over, and we will take care of it from there.” She can be contacted on 0447 112 938 for more information.
