Katie Greer, Maria Brooks and Margaret Carpenter of the Waimea Tramping Club take part in the Big Beach Clean up on Saturday. Photo: Phillip Rollo.

Three tonnes of rubbish collected

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Organisers of the Big Beach Clean Up are still flabbergasted as to how a dead possum stuffed with a Barbie doll was littered at Tahunanui Beach, but the overall feedback from Saturday’s event is that the litter problem is reducing.

Everything from plastic rubbish to TVs, couches and of course the dead possum were picked up by 600 volunteers from Cable Bay to Tonga Marine Reserve. Just 3.5 tonnes of rubbish was collected, down significantly from last year’s 7 tonnes.
Janice Gravett, who is the coordinator of the event, says this year’s collection was just one third of the total collected in the first year, and that was pleasing news.

“The message is definitely getting out there. We’ve been including more children and they’ll be our next generation of course so that’s really good,” says Janice.

“I think it’s all good news and the day went really well,” she says.

Janice says weird and whacky items are always a feature during the Big Beach Clean Up and admits the dead possum certainly tops the list. “We see TVs, chairs, couches, tyres and we see a lot of plastic but to be honest there’s a lot less all around.”

The worst spots on the entire coastline are on the roadsides, where people are throwing rubbish out of their vehicles, and that was one area where the public was definitely not getting the message. “By far, over half of the rubbish always comes from the roadside. But overall I’m very happy. We just keep seeing a decrease every year. This is our fourth event and every time it’s going down so I have to take that as a positive trend.”