More than 50kg of rubbish was collected from Ocean Grove’s beaches by Coastcare volunteers.
Ocean Grove Coastcare’s clean-up day resulted in 52kg of rubbish being cleaned from the main beach and carpark between 16W and 14W.
More than 20kg was attributed to glass beer and pre-mix alcohol, wine and spirit bottles.
Bricks, tiles and timber made up another 10kg, and the remainder came from a mix of cans, plastic drink bottles, broken glass and an array of intact and broken down plastic packaging, together with some clothing.
The most prolific item was cigarette butts, with 786 being collected, followed by soft plastic from shopping bags, dog poo bags, confectionary and other wrappings.
Single-use drink containers and lids – glass, aluminium or plastic – were also prolific.
At a similar event in April 2017 a higher count of all items was made, however Coastcare said while it looked pleasing that less rubbish was collected, part of the area has been inaccessible to the public for some months due to building works around the surf club.
This may account for the difference, along with having 10 fewer volunteers to undertake collecting, said Coastcare.
The information collected will be provided to the Tangaroa Blue Marine Debris database, where it will contribute to an understanding of where litter comes from that is harmful to the marine environment.
