Celebrating the Champions of Litter Prevention: 2023 NSW Tourism Awards
In an exciting collaboration with Business NSW, Take 3 for the Sea is thrilled to share the remarkable news from the 33rd annual NSW Tourism Awards on November 8, 2023. This year marked a significant milestone as the prestigious awards introduced the inaugural ‘Take 3 for the Sea Litter Prevention category.’
The 2023 NSW Tourism Awards winners in the ‘Take 3 for the Sea Litter Prevention category’ are:
Gold: Sydney by Kayak
Silver: The Observatory Apartments, Coffs Harbour
Bronze: Irukandji Shark & Ray Encounters, Port Stephens
The Award recognises businesses that go over and above their day-to-day commercial focus to prevent visitor litter reaching or remaining in the natural environment. The winners all demonstrated the required leadership, commitment, permission (including empowerment and resources for staff and customers) and an established process.
Our Award winners were applauded by 600 of the State’s tourism community who gathered for the gala celebration at White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney to recognise and reward the outstanding achievements of tourism operators across New South Wales.
“Congratulations to each of you”, enthused Jenny-Lee Scharnboeck, Head of Partnerships at Take 3 for the Sea. “You’ve taken the lead in your communities to prevent visitor litter – especially plastic – from entering or remaining in the environment. You have exceeded specific litter prevention criteria for this award, led and empowered your teams, your guests and partners to collaborate to protect our precious natural environments and dependent economies from the impact of visitor litter”.
Jenny-Lee continued “Bravo to all our finalists who have made such a positive impact. Take 3 for the Sea is thrilled to be part of the industry’s annual celebration. Tourism is a wonderful economic success story, and the visitor economy recognises litter prevention as an essential and responsible action. After all, ‘visitor litter is everyone’s business’, and the new annual award is a positive step towards protecting the very environment that sustains us”.
Take 3 for the Sea staff pictured left to right -Roberta Dixon-Valk, Rebecca Dawes, Katelin Giuliano, Juliette Myers, Jenny-Lee Scharnboeck
“We have loved working with the tourism businesses who took part in the Ground Swell program, a Take 3 for the Sea initiative that empowers NSW tourism businesses to work together to tackle the problem of litter left behind by visitors” said Juliette Myers, Ground Swell’s Project Manager. “We are heartened by the passion and dedication from the tourism community. We’ve seen a real mix of similar and unique challenges, all of which are interesting, but no problems are insurmountable! We’ve listened to the issues, determined and understood the causes and provided solutions from our Litter Reduction Toolkit for NSW Tourism Operators. Armed with an action plan, participants feel equipped and positive for the future. It’s been an exciting journey and we’ve only just begun. There’s still so much we can do together”.
This project is a NSW Environment Protection Authority Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy initiative, funded from the waste levy.
For more information, or if you are a NSW Tourism business that is interested in enrolling in the 2024 Ground Swell program, please contact: juliette@take3.org
