Street Banners Spread Re-Use Message

The policy of reducing waste by re-using as much as possible from the postponed Brisbane Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be clearly visible on the streets of the Sunshine Coast from today.

In total 162 bright red and blue street banners, which originally adorned central Brisbane in September, have been patched and will be hung in various locations from Maroochydore to Noosa over the next few days.

Qx Australia, the Brisbane firm contracted to design the banners and other pageantry for the CHOGM, has experimented with creative solutions to ensure the re-use of materials which featured the Brisbane CHOGM 2001 logo.

Patching and re-using the banners rather than producing new ones represents a saving to taxpayers of more than $18 000, the Australian CHOGM spokesman, Andrew Reynolds, said today.

"This is the first CHOGM to be postponed in the summit's 31-year history and it has presented the Federal Government with some unique challenges, one of which has been to reduce waste and re-use as much as possible," Mr Reynolds said.

"The patching on the banners has worked well and will be barely visible when they appear along Ocean Drive, David Low Way, at Maroochydore Airport, Marcoola, Point Arkwright, Sunrise Beach, Noosa and at the main venues," he said.

The logo design on the banners represents the 'coming together' of people from around the world. They will be on display for six weeks. The CHOGM 2002 Task Force is considering what to do with the banners afterwards, such as give-aways.

21 January 2002

Contact:
CHOGM 2002 Task Force
Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Terry Walls 0419 606 107
Julie Marks 0408 684 854