Communities rallying for national clean-up week

Broken concrete, tyres, kitchen cabinet doors and leaflets are just some of the items found last year during the national clean-up week which will run again this year from September 9 - 15.

So far, 11 community events in Auckland were registered on the Keep New Zealand Beautiful website at the time of publishing with more expected to come.

Riverpark Action Group are among those getting involved during the G.J Gardner Homes Clean-Up Week. Last year their group of seven volunteers collected 280kg of rubbish over three hours.

Riverpark clean-up organiser Olga Mills is hoping local businesses will take up the opportunity to give back to the community as well as regular volunteers.

“We seem to have more interest from the community this year and there seems to be a lot more people talking about rubbish.”

New Zealanders are becoming more aware of the impact littering has on the environment, but more work can be done to ensure everyone gets the message, said Keep New Zealand Beautiful chief executive Heather Saunderson.

“We have just finished a litter audit and I think New Zealanders are going to be quite shocked at what we found.”

Ms Saunderson hopes the findings, due to be released just before the clean-up week, will spur communities to act.

“From that research we’ll also look at who the key demographics are in terms of littering and illegal dumping and look at the hot spots across New Zealand. We’ve done a branded litter survey which will also be released.”

Registered clean up events can be found on https://www.knzb.org.nz/