Keeping it Clean… We spill the beans on our rubbish ‘IT’ girl
It took an injury to get a Taupo superstar to stop and smell the roses – or in Carol Lamb’s case, the rubbish. Heralded in Taupo as ‘the rubbish lady’, Carol decided two-and-a-half years ago it was time to start picking up herself as complaining wasn’t getting her far.
“A squash injury set me back, coupled with 30 years of cycling, so on the verge of retirement I purchased an e-Bike and took to travelling around our roads,” she explains. “I was mortified at the rubbish – everywhere – which I think has just continued to escalate with the onset of more and more takeaway places arriving in Taupo. So, I complained to NZTA to TDC, I wrote to environmental and local MP’s – I contacted them all.”
However, it was a perchance conversation with a friend that bought about change.
“We thought about all these people who are walking, they see all this rubbish, but keep on going because everyone assumes someone else will pick it up or they don’t know who’s picking up rubbish in which areas,” says Carol.
“So, we started up the Tidy Taupo Facebook page and it is quite different in the fact that we are not a ‘set’ group you have to join. We don’t all meet up together, nor do we designate clean up areas to members. You can simply join our membership and pick up rubbish when you please.”
This ‘pick up when you want to approach’ has served the group well. Now boasting 557 members – from all over the country and across the globe – members are gathering waste momentum all around town.
“My favourite area to pick up is Wairakei Drive, from the bridge to the roundabout and we have a keen group of retired bikers who often pickup along this stretch as well,” says Carol. “We get 50 kilograms of rubbish a month from the main junctions out of Taupo – and people keep telling me about new places all the time.”
This reactive approach to picking up rubbish is what Carol is most proud of.
“We are creating more and more awareness – we have parents, children, kindergartens all wanting to get involved and our local primary teachers are contacting me asking me to come and speak to classes about litter management too,” says Carol. “When you aren’t forcing people to do something, just creating awareness, that’s when you get people wanting to put their hand up – they want to be a part of something, but not a slave to it.”
Whilst Carol never anticipated her Tidy Taupo movement growing the way it has, the unintentional rubbish advocate says rewards of litter removal go much further than cleaner ground.
“I have helped save a lady $300 dollars towards replacing new immobiliser after I found a key on the side of the road on Wairakei Drive and posted it on our pubic noticeboard. It had been left on the roof of a car which drove off, we later found the immobiliser close by, the lady was thrilled,” explains Carol. “People have also been so generous to me – I’ve been gifted all sorts, strawberries, meals, baking, wine, to name but a few. So, that is really lovely when I receive that sort of acknowledgement.”
With Carol’s personal rubbish collecting load tipping just over 6,000 kilograms in two-and-half years (that’s right, 6,000!) the generous Kiwi shows no signs of hanging up her grippers just yet.
“I love what we are doing for Taupo and I love the fact that we have this growing group of people out there who want to do their bit – especially our younger generation. When I see the enthusiasm and interest on the faces of our children, that’s the best bit.”
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