Litter by Little: 'Do the right thing' mantra seems to have died

Friday, 28 September 2018

Wellington resident Lee-Anne Duncan picked up all this litter around the Northland, Devon and Raroa road areas in Wellington.

New Zealanders aren't the worst litterbugs in the world, but not every country markets themselves as 'clean, green' and '100 per cent pure', says Packaging Forum spokeswoman Lyn Mayes.

New Zealand was 'middle of the road' compared to other countries, and could do better. 'We should be the head of the pack,' she said.

The message to 'be a tidy Kiwi' was born in the 1970s and 'Do the right thing' was the mantra touted in the 1990s.

South Island scenes being used in 100% Pure New Zealand advertising campaign. There have already been calls to drop New Zealand's '100 per cent pure' slogan.

Wellington resident Lee-Anne Duncan, who collects litter in Kelburn and Northland, said the message to 'be a tidy Kiwi' which she had grown up with seemed to have disappeared.

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But despite those messages Sustainable Coastlines has said New Zealand's litter problem is getting worse as plastic consumption increases.

There have already been calls to drop New Zealand's '100 per cent pure' slogan.

Litter collected from Auckland's Shakespeare Beach.

Wellington resident Lee-Anne Duncan, who collects litter in Kelburn and Northland, said the message to 'be a tidy Kiwi' which she had grown up with seemed to have disappeared.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful chief executive Heather Saunderson said the 'do the right thing' mantra was used up until recently.

'Now I think we've lost that, and we need education.'

But Keep New Zealand Beautiful is reinstalling that in primary schools with its Kiki the Kiwi campaign, Saunderson said.

For adults, educating them about litter was the right thing to do.

Enforcing 'beautiful behaviour' and civic pride would also work for adults, she said.

A new mantra was something they were working on, potentially to be ready in the next two years, she said.

'In an ideal world, there wouldn't be a need for us [Keep New Zealand Beautiful] and everyone would just do the right thing.'

Mayes said calling Kiwis lazy wasn't the right word.

She believed New Zealanders 'she'll be right' attitude meant when they saw others dropping rubbish, they wouldn't say anything to stop them.

'When they see other people drop litter, no one wants to intervene and say don't do that.'

Everyone needed to be vigilant. 'Don't even drop apple cores out the window of a car, because it signals that it's okay.'

If people saw others littering, they felt a license to litter as well.

However, if people saw others picking up litter it could have a 'stadium effect', a feeling that dropping rubbish was wrong, Mayes said.

PICK, PIC AND BIN

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