By ANNE BESTON
Children at Mayfield Primary School in Otara have taken Clean-Up New Zealand Week to heart.
They have cleaned the school grounds, painted their vision for the polluted Otara Creek and even set up a composting farm with worms
"We've painted the picture because this is what we want Otara Creek to look like in the future," said Andrew Puletiuatoa, aged 10. "At the moment it's all dirty with trolleys in there and stuff."
Tomorrow, 400 people will descend on the creek to help to clean it.
So far this week, 651 schools and 12,036 registered community groups throughout the country have cleaned parks, beaches and city streets as part of the clean-up week.
In Wellington, a "dead car" amnesty has been so successful that the city council has ended it early. Organisers said 110 cars were either dropped off at landfills or picked up for $10 by the council.
National organiser Juliet Mallins said an audit would be done of the amount and type of rubbish collected.
A survey of rubbish from last year's clean-up showed that ATM machine dockets were the most common item of litter, followed by plastic and lolly wrappers.
Clean-up New Zealand Week finishes on Sunday.
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