Media Release
30 August 2006

Students Cleaning Up Otara Town Centre

Manukau Institute of Technology students will be on rubbish duty at Otara Town Centre this Friday.

The MIT Foundation Studies students will be collecting litter and promoting the Be A Tidy Kiwi message. They will also be handing out Be A Tidy Kiwi car litter bags to encourage people to collect litter and put it in a bin instead of out their car windows.

Manukau City Council is supporting the clean up as part of its litter education initiatives. The students will also be assisting the Manukau Beautification Trust with graffiti removal around the town centre.

In Manukau more than $2 million is spent each year collecting litter from roadsides, emptying and maintaining litterbins and keeping public places like shopping centres, car parks and walkways clean. The Be a Tidy Kiwi campaign aims to stop people littering and make people think about what they’re actually doing with their litter.

Manukau City Council Senior Policy Analyst, Waste, Patricia Facenfield says the students will be spreading the message that dropping litter on the street has an impact on everyone who lives in Manukau.

"We hope people will be reminded how important it is to dispose of their litter responsibly. Litter dropped in the street ends up along roadsides, on people’s property, in the storm water system and ultimately the sea.”

The project complements Manukau City Council Community Litter Education Strategy to change people’s littering behaviour and eventually achieve a litter-free Manukau.

ENDS

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