Next month’s Sustainable Living Festival hopes to guide “the casual, committed or just plain curious” towards some different options.

Running from November 1 to 30, the 2018 festival comprises 45 events and three exhibitions that celebrate ways to reduce individual and collective impacts on the environment.

Part of Two Cities One Community, the program (alburywodonga.gov.au/slf) includes learning to cook with native ingredients, how to save money on energy bills for household and business, sustainable do-it-yourself tips for children, advice on repairing broken household appliances, benefits of tiny houses and tours of the Albury Waste Management Centre.

A highlight will be the stalls, workshops and demonstrations at the Sustainable Living Fair on November 8 in Albury’s QEII Square.

Launching this year’s festival at Albury’s Retro Youth Cafe on Thursday, Wodonga councillor Kat Bennett and Albury mayor Kevin Mack noted the need to invest in sustainability.

“It’s really important that we as community leaders and with our residents work on different ways that we can make change today that will affect the generations tomorrow,” Cr Bennett said.

She pointed to the success of the three-bin rubbish/recycling/compost system.

“We’ve been able to divert about 71 per cent of waste away from landfill, which is absolutely epic for two cities to be doing,” she said.

“On an individual level, you can actually make a difference, things like being more aware of the things that you’re purchasing.”

Cr Mack said discarded electronic devices remained a critical issue nationwide.

“As a council we are engaging with people across Australia and Europe to provide us with a solution to be able to find an opportunity to process e-waste more effectively,” he said.

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Trinity Anglican College students brought to the launch some of the 10,241 disposable cups they’re collecting for an art project to be displayed at the festival.

Primary art specialist Renee Vanegmond said the children chose to focus on single use drink holders.

“One keep cup can solve so many problems,” she said.

“Some people have three to four coffees a day takeaway and then people having milkshakes, there’s smoothies that you can get, all of these sort of cups go into landfill.

“I believe we’re not connected enough to the planet to actually realise what we’re doing.

“We need to get kids in nature so they actually connect and really start to care, and not just kids, adults the world over.”