our place
Annual clean-up week set to make a difference
“With more volunteers taking part in their local events, we can collectively make a huge difference.”
Keep New Zealand Beautiful is once again asking Kiwis to ‘Do the Right Thing’ and come together to make a collective difference by getting involved in this year’s Clean Up Week, September 13-19. The community pride initiative, run annually by Keep New Zealand Beautiful, aims to get businesses, schools, community groups and individuals involved in cleaning up their little part of Aotearoa. It has become New Zealand’s largest clean up event with 57,936 volunteers involved last year. An area equivalent to 4,935 rugby fields was cleared and a total of 561,979kg of litter was collected. Keep New Zealand Beautiful is a not-for-profit charitable organisation that has been working to reduce litter since 1967. It facilitates initiatives and encourages Kiwis to do their bit for the restoration, care and protection of their local and national environment. CEO Heather Saunderson says, as New Zealand’s largest community-led event, Clean Up Week presents a great opportunity for education and litter awareness to reach every corner of the country.
“With more volunteers taking part in their local events, we can collectively make a huge difference.” Keep New Zealand Beautiful used to offer free clean up kits to all Clean Up Week participants but is taking a climate conscious approach this year, asking participants to organise their own reusable and sustainable kits using everyday items such as buckets and gardening gloves. “We’re aware of the carbon footprint involved in the creation and couriering of single-use kits across the country,” says Heather. “As much as we want to clean up litter in New Zealand we also want to reduce what goes to landfill after our clean up events. This year we’d like everyone involved to be climate conscious and arrangetheir own clean up kits.” Keep New Zealand Beautiful has partnered with Waste Management, EnviroWaste and selected councils to allow volunteers to dispose of the litter they collect for free at transfer stations around the country. To register a clean up event for your local area, or to join in a public event, visit www.knzb.org.nz.
Charities to benefit from hospitality industry recovery Thousands of charity recipients “What we are seeing is strong are set to benefit from the rapid support for suburban hospitality recovery of suburban hospitality venues as well as increased and retail as growing numbers retail activity. of consumers opt to purchase “This is driven by a range of locally. factors including more people The trend has seen one of working from home and dining Auckland region’s largest food and out locally and a reduction in beverage retailers bounce back overseas travel which also strongly after Covid – bringing decreases the amount of flow-on benefits for local charities duty free alcohol entering the and community groups. country. A $1 million charitable fund, “We are also seeing a consumer made up of profits from the Allan Pollard: seeing strong support for trend towards the purchase of hospitality industry, will provide suburban hospitality venues. higher value beverages which is dozens of community groups with up to $50,000 each having a positive impact on revenue,” he says. towards projects which support those living in West Pollard says the 2020 funding round was dedicated Auckland. to providing essential community support groups with Allan Pollard, CEO of The Trusts, which established sufficient revenue to cover their overheads. the Your West Support Fund says its hospitality and “Despite our own revenues being disrupted as a retail business is performing significantly better than result of the pandemic last year we were able to expected in the year, having been initially impacted by provide $500,000 towards ensuring the continuity of the pandemic lock downs. local groups. He says they have doubled the size of their charitable “This year we will be donating $1m to broaden our fund compared to the previous year after receiving support and help more members of the community a significant boost in revenue from Kiwis dining and as we start to look beyond the immediate impacts of shopping locally. Covid,” he says.
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The Fringe SEPTEMBER 2021
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