Clean Up With Help From Conservation Volunteers & Vic Uni
Image: From left, Pat Wall, Kathryn Wright, Geoff Bennet and Jomar Ybanez
On Friday the 26th of October, we went out to scout the banks on either side of state highway 1 in search of rubbish.
It was a big under taking as in our last clean up we were limited to a smaller geographical area, due to less man power, but this time we had help!
This time, we were joined by some members of Conservation Volunteers of New Zealand, and some students from Victoria University of Wellington.
Image: Conservation Volunteers of New Zealand
Image: Energy TS CEO Geoff Bennett giving a briefing to the Victoria University of Wellington students.
Armed with gloves and plenty of bags, we made our way along the edges of the paths surrounding the motorway and collected 60 bags of rubbish! (or about 1.5 tonnes)
Image: 60 bags of recyclables and waste
It was quite a shock to see how much trash was hidden amongst the grasses and in between the bushes by the highway.
We collected countless bottles, cans and plastic wrappers that had seemed to be primarily discarded by pedestrians walking on the footpaths surrounding the motorway.
Image: A bag full of cans, plastics and boxes.
However, our haul wasn't limited to typical food and drink waste, amongst the denser areas of bushes we found plenty of deliberately dumped rubbish which included shoes, clothes, blankets, road cones, a broken bike, a 20L bottle of helium, and even a laptop!
Image: A disregard laptop was found in the grasses!
Luckily the weather held out for us, so we got to enjoy the sun as we rummaged through the bushes and filled up our bags.
A big thanks to the Conservation Volunteers of New Zealand and to the students from Victoria University of Wellington for getting their hands dirty and joining us, and also a huge thank you to Wellington City Council who organised the collection of the recyclables and waste and to Interwaste who are organising the sharps disposal.
