Waimea Inlet Forum teamed up with Keep Richmond Beautiful and Forest and Bird over the weekend, for a joint effort beach clean-up.
A total of 46 volunteers showed up on the day and between the three groups they divided up the coastline, from Mapua around to the Honest Lawyer, and set about the task at hand.
Gillian Pollock of Forest and Bird had the idea of cleaning up the Waimea Inlet when she found out that Department of Conservation were no longer sponsoring the event, formerly called Big Beach Clean-up. Gillian, whose team cleaned from the end of Beach Road to Rough Island Bridge, says her team collected 13 bags in all from the cycleway areas.
Ron Argue, chairperson of Keep Richmond Beautiful, says his team collected 2 trailer loads of rubbish, including a sizeable nylon tent and a lawnmower catcher. “What we really noticed amongst lots of other plastic was big quantities of white polystyrene. We picked up down to matchbox size, but that left a lot of smaller pieces.”
Waimea Inlet Forum voluntary secretary Linda McClintock says that the most notable amount of rubbish was found where the road was close to the estuary, “it’s disappointing that so much is still thrown out of car windows.” Their team ended up with two trailer loads including sheets of plastic, car seats and tyres.
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