Editorial: TV show to clean up city all real

At first, it sounds like a strange idea for a TV show.

Rummaging through illegally dumped rubbish and trying to figure out where it came from - with the goal of shaming dumpers (and presumably viewers) into thinking twice before doing it again.

How exciting could that be to watch?

As we reported today, Maori Television, with Rotorua presenter Kiri Danielle, started shooting its new reality show Kaitiakitanga in Rotorua this week. Yesterday, they put their detective skills to use on bags of rubbish found at a reserve on Edmund Rd.

The issue of dumped litter messing up our city has been regularly raised by our readers in recent years - we've run numerous stories about household rubbish being illegally dumped on Mountain Rd and on abandoned properties in Fordlands, among others.

It's something that gets readers fired up and rightly so - no one wants to see our streets, rivers or parks covered in soiled nappies, packaging and goodness knows what else.

And there doesn't seem to be any reason for it. How hard can it be to, once a week, put your rubbish bags on the road for the rubbish collectors? Yes, you may have to pay for council bags, but according to Ms Danielle, much of the litter found in Rotorua yesterday was already in the official bags. It doesn't make sense.

Ms Danielle admitted she was preparing for aggression from the dumpers and that's probably what will make for good viewing - seeing the "bad guys" confronted. Let's just hope they match the rubbish with the right people!

We haven't heard what the outcome of the Edmund Rd filming was, whether the crew returned the rubbish to its owner and if so, what kind of reaction they got. I guess we'll have to watch the show to find out.

Reality shows often get a bad rap but if this one can help clean up New Zealand while entertaining viewers at the same time, then maybe it's not such a rubbish idea after all.