Parramatta. Call for business involvement

Opportunities to recover, reuse and recycle resources from waste streams. Parramatta and Auburn City Councils have engaged the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) to develop a waste exchange program for businesses in the Camellia and Silverwater areas, and are currently seeking businesses to become involved with the development and piloting of the program. To register to participate in the program contact Julian Fyfe on 9514 4969.

North Ryde. Comments 'gross exaggeration'

Macquarie University vice-chancellor, Steven Schwartz, told an audience that universities had diminished and demeaned their work by construing their purpose ''simply as wealth creation''. He said suggestions offered in the Federal Budget papers and by the former Australian chief scientist, Robin Batterham, that universities were dynamos of economic growth, boosting the national standing, were a ''gross'' exaggeration. He said a university education should produce men and women who can understand the world, write and speak coherently, identify a poem or distinguish a symphony from a jingle, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Region. BabyCo in administration

Major nursery furniture retailer, BabyCo, with outlets in Blacktown, Penrith and Wetherill Park, has gone into voluntary liquidation, with the Wetherill Park store, the only one of four in Australia, to remain open. Slow sales and the competitive nature of the retail industry prompted the company to appoint administrators. The company has order requirements for about 1000 customers