Tidy Kiwi

Tidy kiwi success stories
Being a Tidy Kiwi means just thinking about how you dispose of your rubbish, and incorporating easy ideas into your everyday life. Below are some ideas of what other Aucklanders are doing.

At home I got a plastic bag from my cupboard. I live next to the mall and college in my area. I started to pick up the rubbish and once I had collected it all, I found a rubbish bin and I put it in. It's working but only if I keep doing it.
- LF, Whangaparoa
I pick up the litter and put it in the bin at my place. I live next to a main road and a lot of people throw litter out their car windows. I go out and pick it up. As long as I keep at it, it is clean but I wish that they did not throw it!
- LS, Whangaparoa
One morning I was walking to a friend's house when I saw lots of rubbish all over my area in Vipond Road, so I picked it up. I put it in my bin at home. When I keep on seeing rubbish I pick it up.
- MM, Whangaparoa
I take my bin and pick up rubbish around my house then I take it home and put it in the rubbish bin. It keeps the area tidy.
- SS, Whangaparoa
If I drop any rubbish I always pick it up again. Since I've been doing this at school and home while eating lunch, it's cleaner.
- NP, Whangaparoa
These people I sit near on my lunch break play a game of who can get their litter in the bin. When they've finished I go and pick up all the bits that missed. There's never any excess rubbish where I sit. I just in general hate littering and try to be as tidier kiwi as I can.
- CC, Howick
I bought three "green bags" to take when shopping at the supermarket and fruit and vege shops. I also choose to buy fruit and vegetables at a shop that has paper bags. I accumulate hardly any plastic bags - and the ones I do get I recycle. It would be great if more shops would offer paper bags as an alternative to plastic.
-JC, Meadowbank
Our family has a bit of an obsession with picking up bottles and cans, that we see in our area, and taking them home to recycle. We're great role models for our three boys, as they've now started to point out when we miss a particular recycleable item, laying in the street!
- SR, Browns Bay
I make sure anything that can be recycled is. Even if I'm away from home, I bring all my rubbish home and then get rid of it correctly. My success is my kids. They now know the proper way to throw out their rubbish. They never throw anything on the street. If no bin is near, they bring it home, even if it's only one lollie wrapper!! Keep New Zealand the way it should be....Beautiful!
-TP, Panmure
I go out walking most mornings around 5.30am. Where possible I pick up rubbish and put it into bins and add recyclable rubbish to recycling bins.Every little bit helps - would be great to encourage others to do the same!
-GH, Ellerslie
I picked up cans that were littered all over the place in the reserve. I had a lot of success as I go for a walk down there in the morning and if there are any cans I get them before other people see them and think of our area as an untidy area or before kids kick them around.
-CJ, Mangere Bridge
I always pick up paper that is blowing around the street and put it in my paper recycling box. It keeps the street looking tidy.
-Michael, Pakuranga
On weekends when I go for walks I carry a plastic bag to pick any litter on my area streets. I try to talk to my neighbours and our local diary owner to keep giving awareness of how important it is to be tidy! The success I have had is quite good as others too seem to be doing it too...
- NJK, Waterview
To decrease the amount of litter in our street, we (our family) don't put our rubbish out the night before, due to the fact that if we put our bin out the night before hungry dogs may be inclined to knock the bin over and eat the rubbish inside. This obviously causes litter and general household rubbish to fall into the drain and onto the road. An unpleasant look for the street. We started to do this and we also informed our neighbours, so it was like a domino effect. This also stopped the problem of the dogs knocking our bins over, by not giving them the chance to.
-PG Torbay
Our street is on a hill, and all our neighbours recycle but on rubbish day the wind often picks up plastic bottles and scatters them across the street and they don't get collected. My daughter and myself have now started to collect these bottles and place them in the extra recycle bin I purchased. I collect between 3-6 bottles a week and our street looks cleaner and I don't need to worry about my kids or dogs playing with stray rubbish.
-JB, Massey
I have a compost bin in the backyard and I have reduced my rubbish about 50%.
-CY, One Tree Hill
We are composting and have done this for several years. I am recycling paper and carton and bottles. I have also started using my own bags when I do my food shopping at the supermarket, so that I do not have an enormous collection of plastic bags. I also buy things that are not packed or wrapped in plastics, such as bulk foods, to save on plastic bags. Through composting we have our own compost, which means we do not have to buy this (money saver!) and have drastically reduces waste. Same applies to using my own bags for shopping, less waste.
-SV, Morningside
I make sure my cigarette butts are always placed in my ashtray and never throw rubbish from my car onto the street. It's no extra trouble to wait until I find a rubbish bin, or take the rubbish out at home.
-GT, Howick