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Recycle your suburb
As a nation we excel at recycling glass and cardboard and aluminium cans but there are some things that we don’t recycle very well like water, abandoned vehicles and our residential suburbs.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over the last 50 years the nation’s population has more than doubled from 9 million in 1954 to over 20 million.
In NSW over the next 50 years that growth is expected to slow but the population will still rise from 6.6 million to 7.6 million in 2021 and 8.4 million in 2051 while Sydney’s population will grow from 4.2 million to 4.9 million in 2021 and 5.7 million in 2051.
Of course other changes are also taking place. We are moving to urban, regional and coastal centres and we are ageing rapidly. As a population, our median age is projected to increase from 36 years to more than 40 years in 2021 and almost 50 years in 2051.
By choice or circumstance we are also more likely to live alone or in smaller household groups. Over the past twenty years households have shrunk by an average of 14% and more than 70% of private dwellings now have one or more bedrooms spare.
According to Real Estate Institute of NSW President, Mrs Cristine Castle, what this all means is that increasingly we are living in accommodation that does not meet the demands of our changing lifestyles, our aspirations or our resources.
“The decision to upsize or downsize is never an easy one but I often think we let too much sentiment cloud our judgement.”
“It is always a sobering moment when we pass on things to our children that we have treasured for 20 or 30 years only to see them on the footpath at the next council clean-up day. But really it is all part of life and keeping a lifetime of junk is no excuse for a couple in their sixties to be rattling around in a five bedroom home in a good suburb close to schools and shops when they could be living more happily in a two or three bedroom apartment or villa close to restaurants, the water, health facilities and public transport.”
“As individuals, downsizing and unlocking the equity in our homes to spend on that trip of a lifetime or our grandchildren’s education often makes good economic sense but it also has the benefit of improving our quality of life.”
“As a society, recycling our homes and our suburbs to make way for people and families who can better use the spaces that we occupy, and the massive public infrastructure that supports them, also makes good sense.”
“In other words, at a government level we need to continue to renew and refurbish existing suburbs – without destroying their character – rather than continuing to plan for urban sprawl.”
“And at a personal level, perhaps we should give more thought to recycling our homes because really we are just custodians for the next generation.”
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