Recycling help at CNLC
At CNLC you can recycle over 7 regular waste items and 18 harder to recycle waste in our monthly specials. Read more.
What’s on in the garden
Find out about events and workshops held in our Ballam Ballam garden. Read more.
Native Bushfood garden
Named by Wurundjeri Traditional Owner Aunty Dianne Kerr, the Ballam Ballam garden celebrates Australian Aboriginal culture and acknowledges its location on Wurundjeri land.
Ballam-Ballam Community Garden
Do you love to garden? CNLC has a beautiful community garden where people can harvest fresh organic produce, learn more about gardening or potter away in our Carlton oasis as a volunteer. Visit our resident chooks or volunteer to help look after them.
Get your first introduction to the garden by meeting Michelle, CNLC’s Farmer, on Wednesdays or Thursdays 9am to 5pm.
To find out about our workshops and garden working bees sign up to Facebook or Instagram.
Gather around the fire circle or taste some bushfoods. Volunteer to help us plant it out.
CNLC Community Compost Hub
Want to know what can go in the compost hub?
Collect your sticker for your kerbside rubbish bin from CNLC office & help us promote the compost hub.
You can drop off your food scraps to CNLC’s compost hub anytime of the day and help reduce our community’s food waste going to landfill. Get involved to meet your local neighbours while doing a key thing to help our environment.
What do I do?
Drop your food scraps in the bins provided inside the back gate or one you can access anytime on the corner of Princes and Stations Streets. Register to get the code to the 24/7 bin and help us let you know what’s happening at the compost hub. You will receive a fridge magnet which is a guide as to what we accept in our compost system and information. Come into the centre’s front office to pick up your sticker for your kerbside bin to acknowledge to passers-by that you are reducing your food scraps going to landfill. We sell compost and vegetable seedlings when available.
Why compost?
We all want to help the environment, and composting your food scraps is a great way to reduce waste. Food scraps makes up 40% of our bin waste going to landfill. By composting, this becomes a valuable organic material that enriches soil, reduces the need for chemical fertilisers and supports healthy gardens to grow delicious fruit and veggies. Most importantly, it prevents organic waste from ending up in landfill – this reduces harmful methane emissions, the waste of scarce land and protects our environment while addressing climate change pollution.
Carlton Cluckers
The CNLC community enjoys the company of our lovely chickens. They are looked after with care by volunteers to make sure they are well fed and happy. If you would like to volunteer to do a shift once a week please contact info@cnlc.org.au. This is a lovely activity for children to help look after the chooks.
What’s on in the garden?
CNLC’s delivering community circular economy waste solutions through a funded project by Sustainability Victoria.
- Collecting foods waste from local cafes
- Creating the first Australian vegan compost product
- Expanding our recycling hub
- Delivering workshops for migrants and refugees for circular waste solutions
Look out for our electric bicycle around the streets of Carlton!
Native Bushfood garden
Named by Wurundjeri Traditional Owner Aunty Dianne Kerr, the Ballam Ballam garden celebrates Australian Aboriginal culture and acknowledges its location on Wurundjeri land. CNLC respects the custodianship of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Traditional Owners and offer this garden for future generations to enjoy. We share this as a welcoming place, particularly for the local Aboriginal community, to sit, talk, explore and learn.
Our native bushfoods garden is an ideal space to use for gatherings and meetings where you can sit around our yarning circle and enjoy an open fire while you learn about all the qualities of our plants. With a backdrop of a mural of Djalu, Australia’s renowned yidaki player, by artist Maka Makatron, this garden is wheelchair accessible.
We acknowledge the generous support to establish this garden from: Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Pepper Money, Tract, Architects Without Frontiers, PTA Landscapes Pty Ltd and Vixory Capital.
CNLC Recycling Hub
Come to 20 Princes St, Carlton North between the hours of 9am and 5pm every weekday.
We always collect:
- Batteries
- Light globes & fluorescent Tubes
- Mail package satchels
- Mobile phones and E-Waste
- Printer cartridges
- Medication blister packs
- Toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes
Monthly specials
We also have Monthly Specials so you can save up harder to recycle products and deliver them to CNLC for us to recycle. Items are collected on a monthly schedule:
- August 2023 Mismatched Plastic Containers
- September 2023 Paint
- October 2023 CD/DVDs
- November 2023 Cameras and Photographic Equipment
- December 2023 Gas Bottles
- January 2024 Baby goods
- February 2024 Plant Pots
- March 2024 Bike tyres and Tubes
- April 2024 Polystyrene
- May 2024 Beauty Products – Garnier, Jeuneorn, Jurlique, L’Occitane, Olay, Rodan and Fields, Burts Bee, MooGoo and Sukin
- June 2024 Hard Plastic
- July 2024 X-rays and Films
- August 2024 Sporting Equipment
- September 2024 Guitar Strings
- October 2024 Bread Tags
- November 2024 Larger Batteries (Power tools etc)
- December 2024 Mismatched Plastic Containers
- January 2025 Plant Pots
This project is supported by Sustainability Victoria’s Circular Economy Communities Fund and the City of Melbourne Neighbourhood House funds.