We're delighted to bring to life our beloved waste warrior, Timmy Hastings, as he joins us in educating our community on our journey together towards a cleaner, more sustainable local environment.
Timmy is one of the children from our award-winning “Hastings Family” – our quirky cartoon series helping our community change behaviour in managing household waste as we move together towards our community vision of becoming the most liveable, sustainable and innovative place in Australia.
While the Hastings Family was introduced to our community back in 2018, we’re excited to be getting out and about for a re-introduction, bringing Timmy along for some fun and games with his “Waste Warrior” tips and tools.
Not yet familiar with the Hastings Family?
Let us introduce you: Harry, Lucy, Hannah, Joey and Timmy, are your everyday family trying to do their best to manage their household waste. The family star in a range of educational videos on Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s YouTube channel, and feature in the various print and digital material available to our community on how to use our household bin systems, manage tricky waste and send less to landfill.
Timmy, the youngest sibling, is our proudest waste warrior – using “pester power” to teach the rest of us!
Why have we chosen Timmy as our waste education mascot?
As you’ll notice in the video above, Timmy has taken it upon himself to be the family’s “Waste Warrior” – a fast learner who’s eagerly promoting environmental responsibility. Timmy also features in our ConnectEd Kids Little Legends Passport series, launched in 2021, and our more recent follow-up activity booklet, Waste Warriors. So, our local children, early learning centres and schools have been getting to know Timmy for a while now and have been asking for more!
Timmy's first appearances!
Timmy Hastings made his first public appearance in September, visiting 3 of our local early learning centres as a part of our “Recycle Right” early learning session.
As our very excited preschoolers discovered, Timmy can be a little shy and nervous when meeting new people, and was spotted nibbling on his “superhero cape” (a.k.a. an upcycled towel, because he loves to repurpose!) when entering each centre.
With kind and calm encouragement from the young audience, Timmy quickly relaxed, eager to lead our “Recycle Right” sign and sing, and teach the children how to sort their waste, spot the triangle recycling symbol, and “fist pump” for learning to “Recycle Right”!
Elissa Cross, Director of Moruya Drive Childcare centre said the children had a lot of fun meeting Timmy, “he’s big, he’s bright, he’s got a big smile. They all wanted to give him a fist pump! I think he’ll be a great fun mascot to deliver clear messages for the children.”
Out and about in our community...
Timmy has also made his first community appearances during the school holidays, “popping up” at the Tortuga Festival markets and Lake Cathie Foreshore to share his favourite tips and tools when it comes to getting our waste sorted.
But he was quick to relax once he saw how friendly our community members were! Young and old took the opportunity to grab a happy snap with the cartoon “Waste Warrior”. A visitor to our community also shared her praise at Timmy’s fun and energetic approach to engaging children in positive environmental action.
A big thanks, also, to What the Frock Designs in Lake Cathie, for offering Timmy a lovely air-conditioned changeroom to pop on his Waste Warrior shirt and cape!
Timmy, and our Education Team, are looking forward to more fun, games and learning in November, as we tour more of our local early learning centres and preschools as a part of our National Recycling Week campaign.
You can learn more about our early learning and school education programs via our Schools Hub, and keep up to date with our community pop up’s and events via our What’s On page.
