Rubbish Roundup 21st August

Rubbish Roundup 21^st August

The town of Picton in Auckland, New Zealand has been selected as one of 5 sites that will receive ‘smart bins’. The bins send alerts to waste management teams via text message when they need emptying, so this will combat the problem of overflowing bins.

The picturesque popular tourist destination was chosen as a good site for assessment of the impact of introducing the bins due to the jump in the number of tourists it gets in the summer months.

The introduction of the bins is being carried out in conjunction with the Marlborough District Council's Marlborough Litter Project, which will run until 2018.

The town will get 10 dual bins, one for rubbish and one for recycling, which will be located on the foreshore.

If this trial is successful, the intelligent bins will become a familiar sight in towns and cities across New Zealand.  

The introduction of the bins is part of the wider Litter Less Recycle More programme, which was launched earlier this year. It’s part of a 3-year campaign to tackle litter by changing behaviours.

The programme was put in place after a national survey on litter found that there was around 19 pieces of visible litter every 1000 square metres, 5% of which was broken glass, cigarette butts and chewing gum.

The ‘Our Edinburgh’ campaign, which focuses on educating people about correct waste disposal and increasing resources to keep streets clean has started to pay off.

The campaign was introduced in the final few months of last year, and the council say that they now get markedly less calls from people complaining about fly tipping, litter, and dog fouling.

The council say that they want to keep the city as beautiful and tidy as possible for residents and visitors, and that everyone should do their bit.

They have employed over 40 more staff to clean the streets throughout the day and night in the summer months, and they have increased the frequency of bin collections.

Environmental Wardens will patrol the city to deter people from dropping litter and fly tipping. They will also monitor waste and cleansing in the area generally.

Members of the public will be reminded to do their bit, and they will be reminded about disposing of their waste responsibly with extra cigarette bins being provided and ‘bin me’ stickers being put on takeaway packaging.

A group of volunteers from McDonald's restaurants and some players from Oldham Athletic Girls FC have carried out a litter clean-up in Oldham.

The group spent more than 3 hours picking up litter and tidying up the area, and they collected 20 bags of rubbish.

The clean-up was one several of McDonald's clean-ups in the UK which took place as part of Keep Britain Tidy's Love Where You Live campaign. The campaign encourages people to work together to keep their local area tidy.

McDonald’s have worked in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy for 7 years, and they say they know the importance of helping to look after the area in which they operate. Restaurant staff nationwide patrol the areas around their restaurants and pick up litter, even if it doesn’t belong to their restaurant, and collectively, they cover around 3000 miles each week.

McDonald’s staff also take part in other activities such as painting walls and replanting trees and flowers to improve areas.