Team Up 2 Clean Up

Team Up 2 Clean Up (T2C) is a community clean‑up programme led by Earth Action Trust. It uses simple, joyful action to change behaviour around waste, build social connection, and make neglected streets feel safe and loved again. Over four years, it has become a powerful storytelling vehicle for Earth Action Trust, showing how migrant and local communities can come together to care for their neighbourhoods and the environment in visible, measurable ways.

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"The thing I'm taking away from today is to pick up rubbish when I see it on the street rather than thinking it's not my problem."

— Clean-up participant, Te Atatū Peninsula

Impact

Earth Action Trust measures impact at several levels:

Event‑level metrics: number of volunteers, hours contributed, kilograms of waste collected, types of items and what proportion can be diverted from landfill

Programme‑level metrics: across FY24/25, the T2C programme engaged 777 volunteers across 20 clean‑up events and collected 1,843 kg of waste, with growing participation from youth and local groups.

Longitudinal trends: in sites like Te Atatū Peninsula, three years of data show a decrease in the volume of rubbish collected, suggesting both cleaner environments and some behaviour change around littering.

Qualitative impact is captured through participant feedback, social‑media comments, and short “voices from the clean‑up” videos, which highlight shifts in attitude such as pride in the neighbourhood, increased knowledge of recycling options, and a stronger sense of connection to others and to the whenua. Together, these data points and stories provide a robust picture of both environmental and social outcomes.

Influence

The strength of T2C’s story - grounded in clear numbers, strong visuals and authentic community voices - has helped Earth Action Trust secure further investment and recognition. Its FY24/25 impact reporting notes that the programme has secured funding to continue for another three years, supported by Auckland Council’s WasteWise team, reflecting confidence in the model’s effectiveness.

Locally, the story has deepened partnerships with sports clubs, schools, resident groups, ethnic groups and local boards, who increasingly see clean‑ups as a useful way to respond to concerns about litter, safety and community cohesion. It has also shifted perceptions. Where some people previously assumed clean‑ups were “a council thing” or aligned with a particular political party, T2C is becoming recognised as community‑led, migrant‑led and open to everyone.

Key lessons learnt

Developing and delivering this story hasn’t been without challenges. It takes careful work to:

Communicate that events are non‑political and community‑driven, especially in an environment where environmental issues are often politicised.
Balance safety and logistics (e.g. access to streams, traffic, weather) with the desire to work in the most neglected spaces.
Sustain volunteer energy and staff capacity over multiple years while still leaving room for communities to take the lead.

Insights that other storytellers can take from T2C include:

Start with a simple, concrete action that people can easily say yes to, then layer in deeper messages and behaviour change over time.
Treat each event as both an intervention and a story‑gathering opportunity, so you are always building a bank of images, quotes and data for future storytelling and reporting.
Co‑design the story: let participants, local leaders and partners help decide how their community is portrayed and which impacts are most important to celebrate.

T2C and its format are designed to achieve four things at once:

Make it easy and appealing for newcomers and non‑activists to take a first step into environmental action.
Demonstrate very visible, local impact - turning a neglected street or stream into a cleaner, safer‑feeling place in just a couple of hours.
Deliver practical learning about waste reduction and recycling in a hands‑on, relational way.
Build a case for continued investment in community‑led zero‑waste work, using both data and lived experience.

By telling the story of “ordinary neighbours teaming up to clean up” across suburbs and over multiple years, Earth Action Trust hopes to normalise the idea that caring for the environment and each other is part of everyday community life.

Purpose

Organisation

Earth Action Trust is a migrant‑led charitable organisation founded in 2013 that focuses on environmental awareness through waste reduction and elimination. It empowers communities through education, collaboration and practical action, with a strong emphasis on cultural inclusivity and supporting newcomers to Aotearoa.

T2C is its flagship programme which offers regular clean‑up events in suburbs and town centres. It’s deliberately designed as a low‑barrier entry point into environmental action. Tools are provided, events are short, family‑friendly, and framed as a fun way to meet people and get light exercise. It presents a compelling opportunity to “make a difference to our community and environment”.

“There is so much misinformation about what can and can’t be recycled. I learnt a lot today and feel more educated.”

Context and challenges

Earth Action Trust works in neighbourhoods where litter, illegal dumping and neglected spaces are everyday realities. This contributes to a sense that “no one cares” and results in streets that feel unsafe.

While locals may want to help, they are often unsure where to start or put off by technical “zero waste” language and many assume clean‑ups are council‑run or political. In this context, T2C tackles two intertwined problems: visible rubbish and invisible disconnection.

What makes it stand out

T2C is a success story for how a migrant‑led organisation uses a low‑barrier clean‑up to build belonging, confidence and long‑term behaviour change. Earth Action Trust deliberately positions new migrants and local residents as the heroes of the story, turning them from bystanders into visible kaitiaki (caretakers) of place.

Each clean‑up is treated as a mini story in itself because it is co-designed with the community. Some communities have led with themed events (like a Halloween “superhero” clean‑up where participants wore capes and became heroes that picked up rubbish) which make environmental action playful and highly shareable. Over four years, these small stories of community action have accumulated into a recognisable movement across different suburbs, with Te Atatū Peninsula now at the point where the community drives the momentum.

Co-design

T2C’s story has been co‑designed with the communities who show up. Stakeholders range across local residents, sports clubs, schools, churches and small businesses, who help shape locations, themes, timing and the “feel” of each event. In Te Atatū Peninsula, for example, Earth Action Trust initially partnered with the Rivercare Group Te Wai o Pareira and local champions. Three years later those partners now lead everything from promotion to food, with Earth Action Trust supporting data collection, safety and zero‑waste expertise.

Participants also co‑create the narrative content. Short videos, vox pops, photos and quotes captured on the day - often in multiple languages - feed back into social media, reports and funding applications, ensuring the story reflects the voices, cultures and motivations of the people involved rather than a generic “our organisation did X” framing.

Why
it works

T2C uses a hybrid format: on‑the‑ground clean‑up events as the “core story”, supported by photos, short videos, social posts, Humanitix event pages and impact infographics that can be shared by participants, partners and funders. Clean‑ups were chosen as the central format because they:

Are highly visible and easy to understand.
Offer immediate, tangible results (visible before/after).
Naturally create social interaction and a sense of achievement.

Digital storytelling then extends the life of each event, enabling Earth Action Trust to highlight individual voices, celebrate volunteer effort, and show cumulative impact across different neighbourhoods and years. This story captures attention and creates change because it:

Starts where people are: “Come for a couple of hours, we’ll provide everything, you’ll feel good and meet people,” instead of “come and learn about waste systems.”
Uses emotion and identity - fun themes, local pride, being a “hero” for your street - to draw in people who might not normally attend an environmental event.
Shows quick wins (bags of rubbish collected, a visibly cleaner area) while gently introducing deeper ideas about waste diversion, recycling and long‑term behaviour.

Over time, repetition builds a narrative of transformation. The same streets and streams, visited season after season, demonstrate that community care is an on‑going relationship with place. In Te Atatū Peninsula, the shift from Earth Action Trust‑led to community‑led clean‑ups is itself part of the story: it proves that people now see themselves as owners of the kaupapa, not guests at someone else’s project.

“It’s been really encouraging to see such a huge pile of rubbish that would’ve ended up in the waterway. Now it’s out – and that’s a big win for the environment!”