Mucking in at Takitimu Drive

Cassette players, a pink painted work boot and a mattress were among the rubbish cleared from the Takitimu Drive reserve, as schools mucked in to clean up their local park yesterday.

Around 150 Pillans Point and Mataphi Primary School pupils grabbed rubber gloves and rubbish bags to work their way along the reserve on Tuesday, in the first stream clean-up of the year.


Pupils from Pillans Point and Mataphi Primary Schools with some of the more interesting pieces of rubbish. Photos: Tauranga City Council.

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

Pupils and council staff spent the morning delving into the bushline along Takitimu Drive, starting at both ends from the Domain and archery park picking up plastic wrappers, chip packets and any extra hidden items.

In total, two large trailer loads of rubbish were collected – some 600kgs in total. A 240-litre bin full of recyclable material was also collected.

It was an amount that even surprised Tauranga City Council consents officer Toby Barach.

'I knew we were going to get a reasonable bit, but I was surprised we collected that much in such a small area,” admits Toby.

Along with normal everyday rubbish such as plastic bags, drink cans and fast food wrappers, pupils uncovered a number of interesting items.

Toby says: 'We had a couple of bicycle wheels, what was left of a mattress, and half a bicycle completely different to the other wheels.

'We also had an assortment of shoes, a pink painted steel cap boot, two radios, a CD Discman and an old cassette tape Walkman which the children were fascinated by as they had never seen one. That made me feel a bit old!”

'The rubbish clean-up is a great thing but the key message for the kids to take home and share with their friends and family is about sustainability and reduce what they are using and recycle where they can.”

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2 comments

Well Done

Posted on 01-04-2015 13:12 | By carpedeum

So good to see the kids getting behind better Community Living !! Shame that a cleanup is needed at all though SOME LAZY CITIZENS who really dont care about decent standards for us all.


Excellent work kids!

Posted on 01-04-2015 17:27 | By GreertonBoy

The environment thanks you.... so do I, as well as lots of other people. Hopefully the litter bugs feel ashamed, I doubt it tho.... You kids did great.


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