The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) is convening a Local Government Constitutional Summit from the 8th -11th December 2008 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. It will attract almost 700 representatives from 224 local councils around Australia.

Apart from exhibiting at the Summit, MobileMuster is sponsoring the Welcome Reception Cocktail Party and Exhibition Opening. During this event AMTA CEO Chris Althaus will announce the nominations for the MobileMuster Local Government Awards for 2008, covering Top Recycler (Overall and Per 1000 Residents), Top Promoter and National Excellence. The winners will be announced and awarded their certificates the next day by guest speaker Scott Bennett following his presentation.

Local Government has been a valuable contributor to the success of the program, both through setting up collection points in Council Offices, Libraries, Transfer Stations and, most importantly, promoting the recycling message to their residents, schools and businesses.

More recently local councils have partnered with MobileMuster and FM Recycling to set up innovative kerbside collection services that include mobile phones such as Moonee Valley’s Renew program or the Hunter Resource Recovery’s Lifecycle program or the Eurobodalla Shire Council, which has included mobile phones in its existing kerbside recycling service as a result of the cooperation of their recycler, WSN Environmental Services.

Currently, 291 councils (with 737 locations) participate in the program with 163 returning a collection of mobile phones, batteries, accessories and chargers in the past 12 months.

In 2007-08 Local Councils collected almost 4,000 kgs – a 248% increase on the previous year (4% of total collections).