In recent months, readers from around Otago have written letters to the editor complaining about roadside rubbish.
Freedom campers have also come under the spotlight.
Many are clean and tidy but others are desecrating the countryside.
In a letter to the editor (ODT, 10.12.10), Margaret Pullar, of Gore, argued for a Keeping New Zealand Clean and Green campaign, and her suggestions were commendable.
New Zealand's image is still green, but it is the green of tarnished brass, and certainly far from clean.
Using a public toilet in Oamaru before Christmas was a shock.
The door wouldn't lock, the seat (for anyone foolish enough to sit on it) promised an ER line-up of bugs, there was no paper and the floor was filthy.
Public lavatories I used last year in Asia were cleaner and better equipped.
Visitors have a right to adequate toilet facilities and instead of bleating about vandalism, the Waitaki council (and others) need to find solutions that enhance people's experience, not leave them with the memory of a stinking loo.
Dunedin's public toilets may be cleaner but the same cannot be said of the brick paths in the central city, which are in need of a good scrub, while patches of urine and vomit in doorways are nauseating.
Flower beds in Anzac Square enhance the railway station, but bark under the plane trees in the Octagon looks cheap and nasty, and frequently litters the footpaths, a great impression for cruise-ship passengers.
There are plenty of groundcover plants and low-growing shrubs that do well under deciduous trees.
We could introduce visitors to some New Zealand varieties.
And why not follow the example of Christchurch and have attractive, heavyweight planters filled with seasonal plants to give the Octagon some colour?
The amount of old whiteware left outside Sims Pacific Metals is the strongest possible argument for reinstating annual collections of inorganic rubbish in Dunedin.
When New Zealand's clean green brand was first launched, it was novel and worked well.
But now other countries are snapping at our heels, particularly Asian nations, where the common denominator is community.
We need to give visitors a better impression and make New Zealand a cleaner, greener place to live.
• Gillian Vine is a Dunedin writer and gardener.
