Unfortunately much of it gets dumped in Dunedin’s Town Belt, which is why primary school pupils have pledged to look after a section of the woodland.
About 30 George Street Normal School year 5 pupils observed native wildlife, explored around and picked up rubbish near Prospect Park yesterday.
It was the second visit this week, with another group from the school starting the job on Monday.
Town Belt kaitiaki senior education co-ordinator Dr Maureen Howard said the school had pledged to look after the stretch of woodlands and would help expand it.
For their first lesson yesterday, the pupils learnt about what lived in the belt, from native birds to invasive weeds.
So far what they had found was "diverse but really promising."
Although they had fun birdspotting and exploring yesterday, it was the start of a longer commitment.
When winter came, they would be able to expand the forest line by planting out from it.
George Street was the 12th school to join the plan.
Pupils emerged from the tree line with all manner of decaying items, including a toastie maker, the remains of a "secret base" and a dead rat.
Hemi Hapeta (10) said he enjoyed helping clean up the land.
He carried out a dense sack filled with bricks, scrap metal and "tons of glass".
Nethul Kotwala (10) said the real fun was finding all the "weird stuff" hidden throughout the trees.
