The Border city outshone the Central Coast, Orange and Broken Hill to take the prize at a ceremony on Saturday night in the Upper Hunter Valley town of Murrurundi.

The overall sustainable communities Tidy Towns award was of four presented to Albury.

Others recognised Albury Council's solar project, its Halve Waste organics recovery program and education and infrastructure recovering resources.

The Border's Repair Cafe was highly commended in the community spirit and inclusion award.

Albury mayor Kevin Mack, who attended the awards dinner at Murrurundi's White Hart Hotel, was delighted with the recognition.

"It was a good night and a great result," Cr Mack said.

"We've never really submitted in these awards before and it's a credit to (council waste management manager) Andrea Baldwin and her staff.

"We've spent a lot of time and energy and money in becoming a more renewable and recycling community."

Keep Australia Beautiful NSW chief executive Val Southam said the award was a reflection on the wide-scale environmental work and projects happening in Albury.

"It's your entry but also the gut feeling that these people have got it all and the assessor has the feeling that this is special and it was Albury," Ms Southam said.

The success means that Albury will now host the NSW awards in their traditional timeslot of November.

This year's presentation had been deferred to March because of COVID restrictions.

However, before then the national Keep Australia Beautiful awards will be held at Beechworth in early June in recognition of that town having been crowned best in the country in 2020..

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The old colonial hub was saluted for its litter prevention, energy initiatives and environmental communication and engagement.

Albury will be competing against Hastings (Victoria), Rockhampton (Queensland), Narrogin (Western Australia), Mount Gambier (South Australia) and Penguin (Tasmania).

"I think we're a pretty good chance," Cr Mack said, adding his city's waste management centre had been acknowledged in the top handful in Australia.

"You used to go up there and put up with a stink and now it's like walking down Dean Street, it's that clean."

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