During lockdown everyone had to stay at home and make breakfast, lunch and dinner as all the restaurants and fast food shops were closed. As a result of this, Auckland’s household rubbish increased by 12%, which means there was an extra 1870 tonnes of rubbish placed into landfill from all household bin recycling and rubbish collections.
This year’s April data was compared to last year’s April rubbish data and it turns out the extra rubbish could fill up 66 double -decker buses and there is an extra 1100 tonnes of glass being recycled.
Aucklander’s recycled 26% more household glass and 27% more household plastic than last year this April, which was very encouraging for all of our environmentally friendly kiwis.
Discovering the household waste and recycling increase wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it meant that everyone was staying safe at home and the trash was going into the bin instead of on the streets. Likewise, residence around Auckland saw a decrease in litter on the streets during lockdown which was great!
However, once level 3 started and the fast food drive throughs opened up, residences saw a huge increase of litter of fast food packages and plastics scattered around the streets which was extremely discouraging to see. People seem to forget that littering creates clogged drains, causes flooding and spreads disease, which is the last thing we want as we try to completely crash Covid-19.
Overall, this has shown Auckland that it is possible for our streets to be litter free and for us all to be waste conscience. If we all do our part, New Zealand will stay clean and green.
What can you do?
If you see litter on the streets throw it away in the rubbish bin.
Recycle all household cans, glass and plastics.
If you have a pile of rubbish, do not dump it on the streets or leave it on your property to spread disease, have us remove it for you! Call us on 0800 Dump ME or email us on info@0800dumpme.co.nz
We are here to help as you do your part and we do ours!
Source: here
