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  The Coober Pedy News is published fortnightly. 

He said at the council meeting that an example is tyres - there are about 10,000 tyres in the council rubbish dump, not enough to be shredded locally for a profit, and not enough money to cover freight costs to Adelaide to be shredded for landfill. Councillors talked about the possibility of local tyre fitters putting a surcharge on tyre fitting to cover disposal costs. One local tyre fitter said during the week that if he put a surcharge on tyre fitting, tourists would say that they wouldn't pay, that they would take the tyre away with them. Later they would just throw the tyre out somewhere in the wide open spaces of the outback.

Mr Zechner said that the one thing we have in abundance around Coober Pedy is open space - no shortage of land fill area, and in addition, the water table is well below the surface. 

He said that all refuse picked up by the council from wheelie bins is used as landfill - nothing is sorted. The added cost of freighting sorted materials to Adelaide makes sorting unviable. Mayor Baines wants State or Federal government to subsidise Coober Pedy recycling.

Aluminium cans etc, and copper and aluminium waste is handled privately by Northern Saints Recycling. Most scrap iron is handled by Nick Moulas Transport.

Plastic shopping bags and plastic milk containers (but not the lids) don't last out in the outback sun longer than a month or two - they become so brittle that they crumble to dust, and there are no permanently flowing streams or waterways to clog up.

They say that recycling is not new: 

- in ancient Roman times large urns were left on street corners or near the exit to drinking places. These were used to collect urine from the local community and passers by. The contents of the urns were then collected by laundries which used the urine as a form of starch in their washing processes;

               - in order to save money and resources, Ford recycled paint back in the 1920's when manufacturing their Model T Fords. In the car painting process, waste paint was collected in pits under the cars and then reused. This was one of the key reasons why the cars were only available in the colour black.

The old pioneers never wasted anything - when they killed a pig they even used the intestines for sausage skins. Some bright spark said they even bottled the squeak and used it for an alarm clock.

From the Gibber Gabber October 14, 2005

NEXST1 Rockets to Success

By Peter Nikoloff, NEXST1 Safety and Operations Liaison Officer

The Japanese NEXST1 supersonic test aircraft rocketed into the sly and the history books at the Woomera Test Range on Monday.

A perfect mission, the launch took place 7.06am. For the next 15 minutes and 22 seconds the 1/10th scale supersonic transport aircraft separated from the solid fuel rocket booster and flew at twice the speed of sound before softly landing under three parachutes. The combined Australian and Japanese operations team collectively held its breath as the aircraft perfectly conducted its pre-programmed mission and collected a mass of aerodynamic data to support the development of a full-sized supersonic aircraft.

The aircraft and rocket were designed, developed and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to research faster than the speed of sound travel. The launch on Monday was a significant step in the ten-year research program undertaken by JAXA on the path to developing a transport aircraft that will fly supersonically. JAXA selected the Woomera Test Range to perform the experiment due to the unique capabilities and large test area. The launch was supported by the Australian Air Force Test Range personnel who operated the critical range instrumentation to ensure a safe and successful test.

Outback Fringe Festival 2006 - Andamooka, Pimba, Roxby Downs, Woomera

A possible activity in the festival is a PUMPKIN LAUNCHING CONTEST. The idea is that a team would build a pumpkin launching device of purely mechanical operation, eg compressed air, big spring or catapult.

From Gibber Gabber October 21, 2005 "What is a Hotel Manager?"

Gibber Gabber correspondent Phil says that a hotel manager must be a diplomat, a democrat, an autocrat, an acrobat and a doormat. He must have the facility to entertain Prime Ministers, princes of industry, pickpockets, gamblers, bookmakers, pirates and philanthropists, pop stars and prudes. He must be on both sides of the political fence as well as sit on the fence or be able to jump the fence.

He should be or have been a footballer, golfer, bowler, tennis player, cricketer, dart player, soldier, sailor, pigeon racer, as well as have a good knowledge of any other sport involving dice, cards, horse racing, dogs and billiards.

It is also quite useful, as he sometimes has to settle arguments and squabbles, that he should be a qualified boxer, wrestler, weight lifter, sprinter and peacemaker.

He must always seem at ease when drinking with politicians, magicians, bankers, wankers, activists, feminists, police, green- peace, builders, wreckers, salesmen conmen and plumbers even though he has just made peace between any of the above groups.

To be successful he must keep the bar full, the storeroom full, the wine cellar full, the customers full and not get too full himself. He must have staff who are clean, honest, quick workers, quick thinkers, non drinkers, mathematicians, technicians and a t all times be on the boss's side, the customers' side and stay on the right side of the bar.