On Saturday 16 November, a core crew of Air New Zealand Greenteam and their families joined us for a clean-up of the beautiful shorelines of Auckland’s Mangere Bridge. Auckland turned on the weather for the day and the volunteers managed to gather an impressive 2,100 litres — or over 41 full sacks — of rubbish from the coast, a superb effort on an sunny summer day.

At midday the troops were refueled with a stop-off at the Mangere Boating Club for a delicious BBQ, before continuing on around Kiwi Esplanade for an afternoon clean-up.

This cooperative effort helps raise awareness of urban littering that makes its way into our oceans, more often than not through our storm water drains. This kind of hands-on action reaffirms the initial briefing the staff were given before the clean-up and opened a lot eyes to the issue of rubbish in marine environments.

In the course of applied action like this over our past few years of operations we have found this to be an admirable, practical, fun way for organisations and their employees to learn about how litter from our streets affects our coastlines. If your organisation would like to take part in an event like this, contact us today.

On Friday 25 October, 10 hardy souls from the Sony New Zealand joined us for a clean-up on Auckland’s Rangitoto Island. With an ominous weather forecast, the team was pleasantly surprised with a magnificent sunny day and smooth ferry ride.

Out on the Island, the famous Rangitoto rock proved a challenging location for the committed team, however impressively the crew managed to collect over 350 litres of trash and remove it from the beautiful coastline. Some of the litter found on this clean-up was used to create a special collaborative schools artwork for Art In The Dark this year at Western Park, a great way to give this litter a new life. The crew enjoyed a delicious lunch on the island before heading back home to Auckland.

We enjoy getting our sleeves rolled up and assisting people with this kind of practical action. It is a great and fun way to learn about the constant flow of rubbish from Auckland’s storm water system, and highlights the effects this flow has on the Gulf Islands.

A huge thank you to the Sony team for your committed efforts and ongoing support in helping us remove rubbish from our beautiful coasts. A massive thanks also to the Watercare Harbour Clean-up Trust for your continued logistical support, your assistance is always valued and appreciated.

We love what we do, but we need your help. Our small team works hard to deliver educational presentations to schools, community groups and organisations around New Zealand and the Pacific. We teach simple steps and creative changes that anyone can make to prevent litter from getting to our coastlines in the first place. In other words: the fence at the top of the cliff, not just the ambulance at the bottom. We’ve spent the past four years fine-tuning our presentation and now we are looking for people to help us spread the message far and wide.

On Saturday 19 October, as part of the Sustainable Business Network’s Sustainable City Showcase, we’re running a workshop to pass on the core skills and knowledge necessary to deliver our proven educational presentation. The workshop is two hours in length and involves a multimedia presentation and interactive training session. The workshop will be held from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Saturday 19 October, upstairs on the mezzanine floor at The Cloud, Queens Wharf, Auckland CBD.

We love what we do, but we need your help. Our small team works hard to deliver educational presentations to schools, community groups and organisations around New Zealand and the Pacific. We teach simple steps and creative changes that anyone can make to prevent litter from getting to our coastlines in the first place. In other words: the fence at the top of the cliff, not just the ambulance at the bottom. We’ve spent the past four years fine-tuning our presentation and now we are looking for people to help us spread the message far and wide.

On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October, as part of Wellington’s Go Green Expo, we’re running workshops to pass on the core skills and knowledge necessary to deliver our proven educational presentation. Workshops are two hours in length and involve a multimedia presentation and interactive training session. Workshops will be held upstairs in the TSB Arena (first stairs on the left after you come through the main entrance) at the following times:

• Saturday 12 October, 11am to 1pm
• Sunday 13 October, 2pm to 4pm

We’re looking for passionate people of any age or background to get involved. For detailed information on how to get to TSB Arena, including public transport and parking information, see here.

This is the first in a series of workshops that we will be running around New Zealand, so if you are unable to attend this workshop and/or are interested in other areas of training, please fill in your details on our expressions of interest form.