Editorial: The myth that is clean, green NZ

OPINION: On a rural Taranaki road, a car passenger winds down a window and throws out a toffee bag. It blows into the windscreen of the following vehicle, whose driver sounds the horn, to the embarrassment of the offender.

So what? you may ask. It's only a bag and it breaks down, doesn't it?

Well, it's all part of a bigger picture: The way so many of us treat the environment without giving it a thought. A paper bag dropped here, a fast-food box there and a cigarette butt or two for good measure.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's worry over pollution from intensive dairy farming and chemicals. Witness the controversy over 1080 poison drops.

While the more conservative among us may be bored hearing the Greens bang on about pollution, the drive to preserve the environment is gaining momentum beyond the activist stereotype.

Among the emerging champions of a clean environment is former All Black Anton Oliver, an Oxford University graduate with a masters in environmental policy, who is being courted by both National and Labour parties.

Oliver says he has strong views on green issues and does not see intensive dairying as the road to future prosperity: "It is not good for our image. New Zealanders are living in this fictional world where we are clean and green ... we aren't."

When an ex-All Black talks like that, perhaps more people will listen. Although his immediate concerns pertain to his home patch, the South Island, his message is relevant for all of us, whatever form pollution takes.

Stop the car and take a look at what's on some Taranaki roadsides. A drive along the narrow road below Wanaka Tce at Bell Block, New Plymouth, encountered three large plastic bags oozing unmentionables, dumped behind a tree at an obscure point.

A stroll along the walkway bordering the city's southern outlet, from Welbourn Tce across Junction St, revealed wax cartons, plastics, fast-food containers, plastic pipes and bags, glass bottles, items of an intimate nature and even a large metal supermarket trolley half-shoved into the foliage.

Apart from the latter, which someone salvaged quickly, most appears to be have been thrown there by passing motorists.

Another worry is people who try to avoid the fee per additional bag of household rubbish by sneakily dumping bags outside someone else's property.

Local body services are abused, too. Koru Rd's rubbish collection point near Oakura will be closed from April 1 because some people have dumped rubbish there several days early, attracting vermin.

All worth remembering when we throw out our toffee bags, surely. Confession: The writer was driving the offending car.

- © Fairfax NZ News