Growing up in New Zealand, we were all 'encouraged' to pick up any rubbish we found lying around. Putting our own in the bin was just something that was a given. Everyone did it. Moving to Australia, this was an incredible eye opener for me, to find the rest of the world didn't look at littering the same way.
I have passed this 'Tidy Kiwi' mentality onto my 'mermaids' and we will often collect a few pieces of rubbish on our way - sometimes within a metre of a rubbish bin.
This is something that is actually a very small change to make, costs nothing, and takes only seconds every day to implement.
New Zealand has recently relaunched the Tidy Kiwi Campaign - Click on the link below to have a look.
Tidy Kiwi (TK) was born in the late 1960s at a time when tossing your takeaways out the car window was the normal thing to do. Kiwis and tourists alike embraced TK - unifying all of us as kaitiaki (guardians) - and giving birth to New Zealand's clean green identity. TK has had several incarnations over the years,
but nothing definitive in over a decade.
The Auckland Litter Prevention Steering group was formed in 2013 to revitalise TK so that a new generation of New Zealanders can discover this iconic identity and come together to protect what we love. We're a collection of central and local government funders on a mission to bring TK back to life.
Will you join us? We've spoken to thousands to develop a new identity for TK and we encourage you to share it.