Saturday marked the beginning of Sustainable Living Week, an annual green-living awareness week, organised by the Rotary Club of Orange, which included a range of activities over the weekend, and CSIRO science workshops for school children during the week.

A flash mob, performed by Stepping Out Dance Factory, surprised farmers market shoppers at 9.50am, before the Primary Schools Sustainable Cooking Challenge kicked off at 10am.

Free gardening workshops and information stands about recycling and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program for schools were also available throughout the day.

Gardening workshop leader Haidee Nelson, from the Environmental Learning Facility Community Garden Group, was teaching people how to make worm tower gardens, using old buckets sourced from supermarkets and downpipe cut-offs.

“Home gardens help reduce your ecological footprint. If you pick your own vegetables, it means you don’t have to use petrol to drive to the shops,” she said.

“It also saves water because commercial growers use a lot of water.”

The awareness week, which was organised in conjunction with the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Orange (ECCO), Orange City Council, NetWaste and Simply Sustainable, drew a record crowd  to the markets, one of the biggest organisers have ever seen.

Manning ECCO’s stall was president Nick King, who was selling reusable mesh bags for fruit and vegetables as an alternative to the single-use plastic bags commonly found at supermarkets and fruit and vegetable shops.

He said Sustainable Living Week was a great opportunity to promote greener ways to live and encourage people to think about their impact on the environment.

“This is just the beginning. We’re not only trying to reduce our use of plastic, but we’re also educating the public. We take plastic for granted too often,” Mr King said.

“It’s all about promoting sustainable things and that there are other ways we can do things and alternate ways to produce energy.”

alexandra.king@fairfaxmedia.com.au