Illegal dumping of rubbish is a major problem in Auckland’s central city, leaving the streets littered and unappealing and hardly promoting New Zealand’s clean, green reputation.

With the Rugby World Cup approaching this needed to be sorted out. Colenso BBDO and Aim Proximity came up with an innovative idea to not only educate the surrounding businesses on correct rubbish disposal, but also help beautify the city at the same time.

Rubbish can never disappear completely so they found a way to disguise it by turning ordinary rubbish bags into beautifully designed green Hedge and Pansy bags. When placed roadside next to each other they looked like bushy hedges.

Some 5,000 kits were distributed to business owners containing education material on correct rubbish disposal along with 100,000 designed rubbish bags for them to use.

And it was an impressive success. After generating double the media value invested and receiving hundreds of mentions on international websites and blogs the campaign successfully decreased illegal rubbish dumping by 78 percent.