Young eco-warriors cleaning up

If your stroll along the river esplanade in Blenheim has seemed somewhat cleaner lately, it may be due to the sterling efforts of two ten-year-old selfappointed eco-warriors.

Best friends Lily Holdaway and Anna Love were taking a walk one day and noticed that there was a lot of litter lying around on their favourite route along the Taylor River.

The girls decided to take matters into their own hands, so they gloved up and set out to clean up.

‘‘I just think if me and Anna do our little part to tidy up around here, then maybe it will inspire others to maybe not litter, or maybe even to pick up rubbish,’’ Lily said.

The two have been close friends from the age of 5, attending school together at Grovetown, and often take walks when Lily visits Anna at her home for play-dates or sleepovers.

On one of these walks, they picked up so much rubbish that their bag broke. ‘‘Anna was carrying the rubbish in her arms, and I was walking behind her picking up what she dropped,’’ Lily said.

‘‘I had to leave a little pile on the way back cause couldn’t carry it all, and then I went back for it.’’

The girls now take buckets for their rubbish – matching of course, as are their outfits.

‘‘My mum is an eco-warrior, and she really likes to pick up rubbish, so I kind of got it off her,’’ Lily said.

Her mum Tracey started Boomerang Bags three years ago, to reduce the use of plastic bags. Together with a group of women, she sews fabric bags using only recycled fabric.

‘‘We supply about eight stores in Blenheim free of charge.

‘‘ It has slowed down since plastic bags were banned,’’ she said.

‘‘Lily’s grown up with culture of recycling,’’ her mum said. ‘‘We shop at recycling stores and recycle at home. Karina (Anna’s mum) has the same ethos.

‘‘It was never suggested that the girls pick up rubbish. I think they just noticed and took it upon themselves.’’

Anna’s mum Karina Foote said a lot of what the girls picked up probably could be recycled, but because it had been left so long it was hard to clean.

‘‘I clean what I can, but I don’t want to contaminate the recycling. We’re very proud mums – in my day it was a punishment to be sent to pick up rubbish.’’

For the young eco-warriors, their regular rubbish pick-ups have almost become a game. ‘‘One day we were walking, and we weren’t prepared, so we just put the rubbish in the nearby rubbish bins, and we named the bins,’’ Lily said.

‘‘One is called Pizzeria because it had pizza boxes in it.’’

‘‘Then there’s Basic Blue and Bethany,’’ Anna said. ‘‘Because one was blue. The other was just the first name in my head.’’

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HELEN NICKISSON/STUFF Lily (left) and Anna have taken to using buckets for their rubbish-collecting walks, after the bags they were using broke.