It's a pleasure!
By Pauline Stewart.
It was a very proactive approach by the Whitianga Clean-Up team at Buffalo Beach last Saturday. All ages and walks of life came to help with the CleanUp Week working bee.
This group of young adults from the Philippine community in Mercury Bay really did see it as ‘a pleasure’ - volunteering their time to making something beautiful by removing what shouldn’t be there. “Clean Up Week provides a proactive approach to tackling New Zealand’s litter problem; it is a great opportunity for New Zealanders to turn their attention to the issue of rubbish and take a hands-on approach to solving it, “says Keep New Zealand beautiful, CEO Heather Sanderson. “The results from the 2022 National Litter Audit (NLA) were alarming, with the total number of items, volume and weight of litter all increasing since our initial audit in 2019.
The local project of cleaning up extended beyond Buffalo Beach. People used their own initiative and bag and collected rubbish where they could see it along the side of the road. It’s hard to wonder why people don’t ‘Do the Right Thing’ after all these years of education and marketing. Some rubbish comes in from the sea to Buffalo Beach and other items are just lazily dropped for others to pick up.
Waka Tukurua, our Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre, hosted the community clean-up event timed from 9.30am to 12.30pm and prepared a cup of soup for all their volunteers. Kindness is not wasted. Thank you and well done.
Clean Up Week will run from 16-22 September, starting last Saturday on World Clean Up Day. This is a global movement that unites millions of volunteers, governments and organisations across 191 countries to tackle the global waste problem and build a sustainable world. Keep New Zealand Beautiful is once again “encouraging families, schools, businesses, community and youth groups or even just individuals to ‘Be a Tidy Kiwi’ and ‘Do the Right Thing’, get together, get involved and make a difference in their local neighbourhood.”
Caption: Kathleen, Jack Lord, Chrissy, Carmela, Marissa, Paul and Rudy grab their black sacks and join the clean up team at Buffalo Beach in Whitianga last Saturday.