It seems a new trend has arrived, not a typical trend like aviator glasses,  leather jackets or Justin Beiber..This trend is not so obvious, is smellier than most and one would have to be desperate…This trend is also been thrashed in New York City..Park Avenue to be exact. Any guesses?Bet you weren’t thinking Skip Bins (for all those who have seen any episode of SATC - you know Park Avenue isn’t exactly full of skip bins). Due to the major heat wave, the apartment dwelling people of New York City are desperate for some refuge from the heat so they are converting the skip bins into pools, quite a clever idea really (as long as the bins are clean of course!)Would Aucklander’s do the same in a heat wave? Or would we not want to be swimming around where last weeks garbage was housed for who knows how long?However, if you are looking for a skip bin for the more conventional purpose of throwing your rubbish away, have a look at bookabin. We have some great rates - customers in postcode 1027, Point England, Panmure, Meadowbank, Mt Wellington, Glen Innes, St Johns and Remuera have been booking a lot of bins….let it continue!

Be a Tidy Kiwi, is a new initiative devised by the region’s councils. It is running as a three year campaign to get us to take personal responsibility for litter in the region. Littering is a major issue for the Auckland area. It makes streets and the environment look bad, costs ratepayers millions of dollars every year and pollutes waterways. You, your family and friends are encouraged to pledge to Be Tidy Kiwis as part of the “Come on, in the bin mate” campaign. It’s as simple as making sure you put all your rubbish in the bin and encouraging others to do the same.

When developing the campaign it was found that some of the things that influence people to litter are:

• Cultural and social attitudes
• Infrastructure deficiencies
• The ‘rubbish attracts rubbish’ effect
• Excessive packaging
• A lack of enforcement

The Be a Tidy Kiwi campaign aims to:

• Get people to accept that littering is important and serious
• Make it clear that the cost of littering is to the community, even though someone may clean it up
• Identify ways to motivate people who are lazy or cannot be bothered to dispose of their waste correctly
• Clarify what constitutes litter, highlighting food waste and cigarette butts
• Maximise use of litter bins by designing them well
• Incorporate urban design principles when developing or regenerating public places
• Consider enforcement approaches as part of the implementation plan
• Target special initiatives such as cigarette butt litterers, this group of people have significantly different behavior to others observed
• Target Initiatives that focus at ‘transition’ points, e.g. when getting on buses
• Stress that it is the small, individual pieces of litter that accumulate to cause the litter problem

Keep an eye out for regional and local initiatives and check out the website here: www.beatidykiwi.org.nz

• Christchurch residents are making a big difference with their new 3 bin system. In the first year an additional 12,000 tons of recycled material was collected in the new yellow recycling bins, which are complemented with green organic bins and a red bin for rubbish. Contamination is less than 3% - one of the lowest rates in Australasia. This enthusiasm has lead to a problem with over full bins, council is no longer collecting bins that do not have closed lids, and stickering them to let residents know why.
• Greenfingers has been appointed to take over operation and management of the Masterton District Councils rubbish and recycling contract, and composting services.
• Earlier this year the Porirua City Council set up waste minimization systems for both the Festival of Elements and Creekfeast. Porirua’s “Mana Community Enterprises” provided recycling services alongside Wellington City Councils “Kai to Compost” Scheme. This collaborative approach and high level of community involvement meant 320kg of recycling and 280kg of compost was collected. Careful monitoring identified low levels of contamination.
• Clutha District Council wheelie bin collection truck caught fire recently, after ashes were disposed of in a wheelie bin. The council is continuing to publicise this ongoing Health and Safety issue.
• The Auckland Councils are jointly promoting “Ecobiz”. The subsidised business partnership program helps businesses create savings through smart, simple practices that improve their environmental performance. These practices involve reducing solid waste, energy and water usage and enhancing materials efficiency. Seminars are offered to business during the year on related topics, there are two coming up in September. If you are interested in finding out more, visit the Waitakere City Council website for more information.

If you have a look at any wesbites of publications about waste news in New Zealand, you will see that councils all around the country are imposing fines for illegal dumping of rubbish. If you are a person who thinks that ordering a bin, which probably costs considerably less than a fine, and wants to look after the environment then go to www.bookabin.co.nz to see what we have to offer. We have a range of bin types and sizes with coverage all over New Zealand.

There have been recent talks of a proposal for every household in Auckland to have a bin each for rubbish, recycling and compost.  These would be collected from your kerb in an attempt to reduce waste while also saving money. 

Read more -http://www.nzherald.co.nz/waste-management/news/article.cfm?c_id=361&objectid=10636516

Illegal and irresponsible dumping of rubbish is ruining New Zealand’s clean green image, and unfortunately it happens more than we know.

Places like Kaipara have seen an increase in rubbish been disposed of in ditches, down banks etc. Kaipara’s Councillor suggests that irresponsible dumping has increased due to the recession; which is unfortunate as it uses a lot of the rate payer’s money to clean up.

So if you want to get rid of you rubbish responsibly, log onto www.bookabin.co.nz for the best skip bin hire prices in New Zealand. We have suppliers located all over the country, and on bookabin you can choose from 4 waste types and bin sizes ranging from 2m³ to 30m³

Merry Christmas!!

Recycling in Northland

Annually, New Zealanders create 8.7 million tonnes of rubbish. That’s an average of two tonnes per person of waste from all sources. The average Westerner produces 500 kg of “municipal waste” a year (which seems about right, as a proxy for household waste - a 10 kg bag each week). In a month, New Zealand’s rubbish would cover a rugby field and pile it 30 stories high. To ensure that the land of the Long White Cloud is not completely covered in waste, we really need to be more proactive with our recycling.

Here’s a great example from our friends in Northland:

Accessories crafted from recycled materials are growing in popularity as consumers continue to seek out more environmentally friendly products. Plastic supermarket bags, old TV wire and milk bottles are among items being refashioned by Northland artists into high-fashion jewellery. The novel jewellery includes recycled resin pendants and collector-teaspoon necklaces and can be found selling in the Tuatara Design Store in Whangarei.

Check out their website: www.tuataradesignstore.co.nz

On Monday State Highway 29 between Tauranga and Matamata was closed for about three hours while the road was cleared after a rubbish truck flipped when its trailer tipped.

The truck left the road in the Kaimai Ranges, taking a chunk out of a bank before its trailer flipped and spilled waste over the road.

The truck was taking waste to Hampton Downs in Hamilton when the trailer tipped on its side on the Omanawa River Bridge, so far it is uncertain why this happened.

Find out more: http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10578676

On July 1st a new act that came into effect, aimed at getting people in the Manawatu to recycle more. The Waste Management and Minimisation Act would leave the floor open for local community to come up with innovative recycling and waste reduction ideas.

Under the act, councils or residents who take rubbish to a landfill will be charged $10 per ton of rubbish on top of the regular dumping fee, meaning every $10 collected, $3.77 will be returned to the council. From that $3.77, the council can hold on to 50% with the other $1.89 going into a nationwide contestable fund.

District and regional councils can then apply for money from the fund and will be granted it if they can prove they have an innovative idea that will help reduce waste, this is encouraging for entrepreneurs with competitive ideas.

The council will be competing against other councils for funding so ideas would have to be sharp. Get your creative juices flowing and come up with some great ideas, try visiting:

http://www.reducerubbish.govt.nz/regional-pages/manawatu-wanganui.html

…before you order your skip bin at www.bookabin.co.nz consider the following:

If your household fills one large wheelie bin per week (equivalent to 5 bags of rubbish) you probably throw away enough:

• Kitchen scraps and garden waste in a year to make almost one and a half trailer loads of compost
• Paper and cardboard in a year to make a stack of magazines 40 metres high
• Recyclable plastic in a year to fill at least 25 wheelbarrows

In New Zealand, all of our rubbish is buried in landfill sites. The problem is that we don’t have enough existing landfills to cope with the increasing amount of rubbish we’re throwing away. While we need landfills to manage some of our rubbish, over half of the rubbish we put in our rubbish bags can be recycled or composted - the more recycling and composting we all do, the less we will need landfills to provide a ‘final’ solution to rubbish.

Tip #1: Putting your kitchen scraps down the waste disposal unit doesn’t make them go away - all you’re doing is shifting the disposal problem to someone else. Try to compost your scraps instead.

Tip #2: Burning rubbish isn’t a solution - it pollutes the air and may release toxic substances. Composting and recycling are healthier options for you, your neighbours and the environment.

While landfills effectively contain our rubbish, did you know that:

• Rubbish doesn’t break down very well in a landfill. Plastic, steel, aluminum and even paper and cardboard take tens or hundreds of years to break down
• As garden rubbish and kitchen scraps break down in a landfill they produce methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas (20 times worse than carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas) and can reach explosive concentrations in enclosed spaces such as basements
• Rainwater percolating through the landfill and the breakdown of garden rubbish and kitchen scraps contribute to a liquid called leachate. In old landfills, leachate can escape and contaminate surface and groundwater. In modern, well-managed landfills it costs a lot of money to collect and treat the leachate
• While modern landfills don’t tend to cause dust or odor problems, nobody wants to live near one

In the end it’s our actions that will decide the issue. We can each make a difference by taking some easy steps to reduce our rubbish.

(Information above sourced from www.reducerubbish.govt.nz check out this website for more useful information!)