Remember to bring:
- Closed-toed shoes
- Sun-smart gear
- Raincoats and appropriate clothing for the day on the coast
- Reusable drink bottle, filled and ready to go
- Camera!
- Old mobile phone for recycling!
We thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Mother of All Clean Ups event 2023.
In total, 60 volunteers removed 13 full sacks/ 650 litres of litter from the coastline – an amazing effort by everyone. From chairs to cigarette butts, a body board to a toy calculator there was quite an array of items out there!
The data from the Litter Intelligence survey can be found here: Litter Intelligence – New Brighton Beach – 13th May
Survey results of note:
– 478 items were categorised, counted and weighed
– Litter density (379 Items per 1,000m2) is higher than the national average.
– Plastic was by far the most prominent material type – 92%
– Excluding unidentifiable items, the most common items found were cigarette butss, polystyrene and rope.
Those numbers contributed to the wider Mother of all Clean Ups event totals – 543 enthusiastic volunteers removed 438 bags of rubbish, weighing more than 2370kg, from our awa and moana in a single morning. A great achievement that comes with the reminder that there are still steps we can take to reduce pollution in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Thank you to the Mother of All Clean Ups organising committee, the 60 community groups and 20 schools who rolled up their sleeves and helped to clean-up the environment!
The day started bright and early with a beautiful sunrise and the good vibes continued throughout our Seaweek Celebration! Enthusiastic volunteers tried their hand at a Litter Intelligence audit, getting insight into what it’s like to be a citizen scientist, before going for a paddleboard!
We are super grateful to MERC who invited us along to be a part of the day! It was great to be there alongside Revive Our Gulf and Drowning Prevention Auckland.
On behalf of Sustainable Coastlines, Blake NZ and Christchurch City Council I want to pass on our sincerest thanks for attending the Seaweek Event “The Ocean: Above, Below and Around” at Sumner on Sunday. It was inspiring to see the engagement as you dived below the surface of the moana, got your hands dirty sorting through litter from the estuary and visited the home of the Little black/flea mussel. We hope you came away from the day feeling that little bit more connected to the moana!
Further information to help you continue your ocean exploration:
Blake NZ
BLAKE website: https://www.blakenz.org/
NZ-VR videos link: https://www.nzgeo.com/vr/
Sustainable Coastlines
Please find your litter data here: Litter Intelligence – Avon Heathcote Estuary – The South New Brighton Yachtclub – March 11/12 2023
The total number of items counted was 429, 67% of which was made of plastic
Unidentifiable soft and hard plastic fragments had the highest counts, along with glass fragments. This speaks to litter breaking up into smaller pieces once it enters the environment!
Get in touch if you’d like to join one of the regular monitoring groups!
Christchurch City Council
Learning through action: https://www.ccc.govt.
In total, we picked up 138 kgs, around 600 litres of rubbish – an amazing effort! The turnout was a fabulous 70 volunteers, over double what we expected which is fantastic for the coastline.
There was a range of items found, from smart watches to car parts, a fake nose and lots of food wrappers! The results even made it into the news – a link to the article here.
The Litter Intelligence survey data can be found here: Litter Intelligence – Avon Heathcote Estuary – The South New Brighton Yachtclub – 11th March
Survey results of note:
– Litter density (Items per 1,000m2) was lower than the previous survey carried out in Dec ’22 with 452 vs. 532 items audited. However, a higher proportion of these items were made of plastic.
– Unidentifiable soft and hard plastic fragments had the highest counts, along with glass fragments. This speaks to litter breaking up into smaller pieces once it enters the environment!
Sustainable Coastlines are also super grateful to the support of our collaborators Conservations Volunteers and NZ Seaweek plus to our sponsors Phoenix drinks for providing some welcomed refreshments. #togetherisbetter
What an awesome evening we had cleaning the coastline of Takapuna! The weather was balmy and sunny, a perfect evening in between the two storms Tāmaki Makaurau faced. There seemed to be noticeably more rubbish on the coast due to the floods!
Huge thank you to the mahi of all who attended as we were able to make a positive impact on our coastlines!
