Mayoral Column – Penrith a winner in sustainability

Wednesday, 12 November 2025

Penrith City Council has once again been recognised at the Keep Australia Beautiful (KAB) NSW Sustainable Cities Awards.

This year, we won the Liveable Cities Award for Gipps Street Recreation Precinct and the Resource Recovery Award for overhauling Council’s own waste management practices.

Our growing community deserves first-class facilities like Gipps Street Recreation Precinct. We’re proud of what we’ve delivered and recognise the value it brings – including improved social, health and environmental outcomes.

Council transformed a disused 32-hectare waste facility at Claremont Meadows into a dynamic sport and recreation hub that welcomes thousands of visitors weekly.

The needs and aspirations of residents and local sporting groups helped to shape the facilities, which include sporting fields, sports courts, cricket nets, amenities building, water and nature playspaces, skate park and pump track, fitness equipment, an off-leash dog park, picnic and barbecue areas, public art and parking.

We also planted around 60,000 new trees and plants. These are growing well and will provide more canopy and cooling as they establish.

Facilities like this support resident wellbeing and connection - a priority for Council.

We are thrilled you love it too, and we thank the NSW Government for helping Council to deliver this fantastic facility, which has just received a national Community Facility of the Year Award by Parks and Leisure Australia.

Back at Council’s offices and work sites, the KAB Resource Recovery Award recognised our internal process improvements to more effectively sort and manage waste.

Last November, we introduced communal sorting stations that support FOGO (food and garden organics) collection. By June, we had collected more than 7,000 disposable coffee cups. We also recycled 127kg of textiles and donated workwear to a youth employment service.

Council is a leader in waste reduction in our community. By consistently improving our waste and recycling efforts, we pass knowledge on to residents and other councils, and our community benefits as we all make positive changes for the future.

Learn more at penrith.city/waste. Subscribe to our digital newsletter at penrith.city/sustainability for updates and opportunities to get involved.

Cr Todd Carney

Mayor of Penrith

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Wednesday, 12 November 2025.