Here are a couple of good ideas that add to urban livability and sustainability that I saw during my recent travels that I haven’t seen in Auckland and cannot see why we don’t have them.

Firstly Bicycle Cops:

Come on, even the yanks have these. The downtown station in Auckland is a beat only station while Newmarket has some but only constables, get em on bikes!

Secondly, public recycling bins:

To Landfill or Recycling Centre - simple you'd think

These ones are in Christchurch at the International Antarctic Centre but everywhere I went in Wellington and Christchurch you could find these but they are nowhere to be seen in Auckland, they were great, my recycling went up hugely while I was there because I had a choice wherever I was rather than the choice not to recycle or carry my rubbish around with me all day.

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6 comments

  1. I’ve seen one in New Lynn but I understand that this welcome initiative has been dumped by the current National party government; if it survives it will be ratepayer funded.

  2. Christopher – What would the government have to do with providing recycling bins. Rubbish collection has and likely always will be a council function, this includes bins on the street. The only area that the government would have any input would be if they set a national policy around recycling. It makes sense that you saw it was in New Lynn seeing as the Waitakere City Council sees the area as an ecocity.

  3. Yes, the idea of encouraging street-based recycling was a national policy of the previous administration but, obviously, not a National party policy. Just as not ‘investigating’ potential mining operations in National Parks was a national policy of the previous administration that has been overturned by the current National party administration. As the British supermarket chain Tesco’s slogan suggests ‘Every little helps’.

  4. I walk around the Viaduct quite a bit and haven’t seen any SJ… Maybe I should open my peeps…

    Many of the bins had sustainability.govt.nz…

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