140 keen Sustainable Coastlines volunteers came together to help clean up their favourite stretch of the Kāpiti Coast for World Oceans Day on Saturday the 9th June.  On arrival at the Kapiti Boating Club, volunteers were treated to hot drinks and homemade baking thanks to the good people from the Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve who we collaborated with on this event.

A Love Your Coast presentation was delivered by one of our team members, which highlighted the growing problem of plastic pollution in our marine environment.  This was followed by a health and safety briefing before our awesome volunteers were issued with reusable gloves and bags and headed out for the beach clean up mission.  Due to the huge volunteer turnout we were able to cover a large stretch of coastline from Raumati in the south all the way up the coast to Peka Peka.

With rubbish sacks full, everyone reassembled at the boat club where volunteers from the Paraparaumu College S.E.A.R student environmental group got to work sorting and recovering over 200 litres of recyclables from the 800 litres of rubbish that had been collected.  Then it was time to warm up with more hot drinks, a delicious complimentary bbq and a chance to meet with other like minded volunteers and reflect on a very successful beach clean up event.

Over 2,400 individual items of rubbish were picked up during the clean up including 340 food wrappers, 230 cigarette butts, over 200 individual pieces of rope, 85 cans, 80 plastic bags, 75 glass bottles, 40 plastic bottles, various fishing related items including line, lures and two nets, a sun umbrella and a syringe complete with hypodermic needle.  Many of these items pose a threat to local marine life, both through ingestion of the smaller items of plastic and entanglement in pieces of rope or net, so it was great to remove so many of these items from this stretch of beautiful coastline.

Thanks to the Kapiti Boating Club for hosting this event and to the Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve for the delicious refreshments and special thanks to all the fantastic volunteers who turned up and did their bit to help clean up the coastlines and beaches they love.

Sustainable Coastlines and the Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve invite you to join us for the inaugural World Oceans Day Kapiti Coast Community Beach Clean Up on Saturday the 9th June 2018.

Where: Meet at the Kapiti Boating Club

When: Saturday 9th June at 11:30am