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With gloves and rubbish bags at the ready, Tauranga's next crop of rising eco-warriors helped to clean up their local streets.

Yesterday morning, 150 Tauranga Intermediate students and 90 Merivale Primary School pupils worked their way along the roadside, between Yatton Park and Burrows Street, picking up various pieces of rubbish nestled in the bushline.

Tauranga Intermediate students mucking in at Fraser Street. Photos: Bruce Barnard.

Co-ordinated by Tauranga City Council, and supported by Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Tauranga Envirohub, the clean-up is a way to educate pupils about the environment and what they can do to protect it.

Tauranga City Council pollution prevention manager Radleigh Cairns says the children and staff'sm efforts proved beneficial, collecting an entire trailer load of rubbish and a 240-litre bin full of recyclable material.

Of the more unusual items was a small petrol engine from a lawn mower, a fishing rod, sunglasses and some shoes, along with the usual sighting of tyres.

The area is done once a year in conjunction with the schools.

'We find all sorts,” admits Radleigh. 'Previously we have found whole bicycles and all different types of machinery. We find a lot of tyres and car parts.”

He says it is a great way to promote the key message of sustainability through ‘reduce, reuse, recycle'.

And the clean-up events are proving popular for both children and staff.

'The teachers see it as a good way of educating the children,” he adds, 'who can go back out to the community and spread the message about people thinking before they throw something in the bin.

'It's about the amount we put into the landfill. And then how much of this can we take from what would be going into a hole in the ground and what can we recycle?”