Beaches trashed by household plastic
Southlanders spent four days cleaning the beaches of a national park picking up rubbish that has washed up from Australia and the West Coast.
Stewart Island is home to the Rakiura National Park, and recently hit headlines after 1080 was dumped on the island.
More than 30 volunteers combed the remote beaches on the west coast of the island as part of an annual coastal clean up.
Southern Coastal Charitable Trust coordinator Joyce Kolk said the operation which cost almost $110,000 was funded by the fishing industry as well as companies likes South Port.
Most of the waste had come down in currents along the west coast of the South Island or from Australia and ended up washing up on the western beaches of the island, Kolk said.
While the majority of rubbish volunteers picked up had come off fishing boats, a good amount was made up by everyday household items like plastic bags and milk bottle lids that all ended up in our oceans, Kolk said.
Much of the plastic was broken down into small pieces that they do not bother to try and collect it up, she said.
‘‘One of the ladies said that if we’d sieved the waves coming in we would have got lots of plastic.’’
The last time the trust held a clean up on the Island coast was in 2015 and volunteers collected about 20 tonnes of rubbish.
The used fishing gear was recycled by volunteer Eric Black and the Bluff Oyster festival group, and used as decoration at the oyster festival buildings, Kolk said.