Iconic Kiwi charity Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) is excited that its annual Clean Up Week, Aotearoa’s largest movement against litter, is finally here, with the week-long initiative starting this Saturday 17 September.

Clean Up Week is a fantastic opportunity for Kiwi families, schools, community groups and businesses to get together and make a difference in their local neighbourhood. In 2021, over 30,000 volunteers dedicated their time during Clean Up Week to tidy up their communities, removing over 300 tonnes of litter across the country; an area equivalent to 2,589 rugby fields.

Clean Up Week runs from 17 – 23 September, kicking off this year on World Clean Up Day, a global movement that unites millions of volunteers, governments and organisations across 191 countries to tackle the global waste problem and build a sustainable world.

It’s not too late to get involved and do your bit in the community – registrations for Clean Up Week are open via the KNZB website until 23 September. The registration process is simple – participants choose a day to host their event, pick a spot, and KNZB will provide supporting resources to run a successful event. For those that aren’t the organising type, visit www.knzb.org.nz to see what public clean up events are being hosted in your area and join in.

For the first time there will be the opportunity for those involved in Clean Up Week to also contribute to KNZB’s Citizen Science programmes. If your group or team wants to take a deeper look at the litter in your area, participating in a citizen science programme and recording the litter types, weights and locations will provide a secondary dataset to the National Litter Audit. This data will, in turn, feed into a shared database that will help to inform local and national legislation, as well as KNZB’s community led programming and behaviour change campaigns.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful is supported by its Ambassadors, renowned celebrity chef Michael Van de Elzen, media personality Stacey Morrison and artist Hayley King, known as Flox.

Heather Saunderson, Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO says, “Clean Up Week encourages Kiwi families and groups to ‘Do the Right Thing’ and work together to clean up their little patch of Aotearoa. Being clean and green is not only vital for our own health and that of our waterways, flora, fauna and whenua, but also for the protection of our much-valued tourism industry, our climate future and the wellbeing of generations to come.”

This year Keep New Zealand Beautiful celebrates 55 years of environmental community work, a testament to the organisation’s dedication to protecting Aotearoa’s environment.

Clean Up Week is supported in partnership with Waste Management, EnviroWaste and some councils, which allows Clean Up Week participants to dispose of the rubbish they collect for free at selected transfer stations.

Visit www.knzb.org.nz for more information.

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