Brief Explanation

Our mission was to get CBD businesses to clean up their act and get the city looking it’s best for the Rugby World Cup. We needed to educate them on correct disposal methods, correct times for collection and make them aware that illegal dumping can attract fines of up to $25, 000. Most importantly, we needed them to start taking pride in their city and become interested in this low-priority topic of rubbish disposal.

The Brief

New Zealand is famous for being clean and green. Unfortunately, in the lead up to the Rugby World Cup, our major city wasn’t looking that beautiful. Businesses were disposing rubbish incorrectly and dumping waste illegally. Heart of the City came to us with this problem and asked if we could find a cost effective way to change behavior.

How the final design was conceived

Rubbish is ugly. It’s not glamorous. It’s not a high priority for any business in the CBD and it hadn’t been something that people wanted to look at or talk about. Until now. We knew we could never make rubbish disappear, but we found a way to make it beautiful. We redesigned ordinary rubbish bags and brought them to life, with a green bush pattern that formed the shape of a hedge when placed curbside. With streets lined with the colourful bags, businesses started taking pride in their city.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

With over 100, 000 bags distributed throughout the CBD, Auckland City was transformed overnight. It created a natural momentum as the ‘Beautify Your City’ campaign and the rubbish bags were exposed on the news several times, along with mentions on hundreds of international websites and blogs. The campaign not only made rubbish beautiful, but has also encouraged councils around the world to do the same. Illegal rubbish dumping dropped by 78%. There was a positive response from CBD businesses with an increase in inquiries to the council on how they could better their disposal methods. This was proofthat one simple idea can have such a huge affect on a city.