The City of Palmerston is situated in the Northern Territory and is the satellite city of Darwin with a population expected to reach 40,000 + by 2023.
Palmerston doesn’t have its own landfill and operates the Archer Waste Transfer Facility on the south-west edge of the city. The facility is manage under contract by Veolia Environmental Services. Both the city and Veolia are actively encouraging better utilisation of the recycling facilities and diversion of recyclable materials from general waste. This has contributed to a drop in waste to landfill of over 700 tpa and represents a saving to the city rate payers of nearly $70,000.00.
The city has conducted two reviews of the facility as part of a strategic waste management review. Both reports have identified that poor signage contributed to a number of issues at the Archer Waste Transfer Facility including;
- Poor traffic management
- Lack of awareness of recycling options available
- Missed opportunities to promote better recycling practices
- an overload of poorly designed and located signage
The city engaged Wayfound to audit and develop a new wayfinding signage plan for the facility. Wayfound delivered the whole project remotely. We started off by conducting a virtual walk and drive through of the entire site with the project officer. Over the years signs have been added in an ad-hoc fashion. Our first recommendation was to remove all outdated and mismatched signage. We then determined the key decision making points and circulation routes and planned all new sign locations.
A key part of the project was to educate residents and development a better awareness of the different recycling options at the facility on the approach road. To achieve this we developed a standard set of icons to represent what could be recycled and what couldn’t. To reinforce this good behaviour we developed a billboard at the exit which could be used to promote the benefit of good recycling to residents.
Currently the City of Palmerston is upgrading the facility with the new signage being installed when complete.
