More than 10 tonnes of unwanted rubbish has been cleared from the Wylie and Jones St Reserves in an operation involving more than 300 children from Gate Pa School, Greerton Village School and Greenpark School.

Greerton Village School pupils Tara McLaughlin, 9, Liam Hoebergen, 9, Lincoln Nooroa, 10, Liam Vincent, 9, and Sam McCoy, 9, with some of the rubbish they found. Photos by Tracy Hardy.

The clean-up involves clearing rubbish from about 2kms of reserve tracks and walkways at the Wylie and Jones Street Reserve.

Tauranga City Council pollution prevention officer Toby Barach says historically there has been a lot of dumping in the area across the last 20 years and this is the first time a clean-up day has been organised for this reserve.

'There are things like car bodies, TVs, car tyres and a lot of general rubbish because the reserve area, I guess has always been quite well hidden and not well used, and a lot of that [rubbish] has gone un-noticed.”

So far, the children have pulled about 10 tonnes of rubbish, including three car bodies, at least 50 tyres, four washing machines, six lounge suites, old cow bones, a lawn mower and a microwave from the back of the reserve – and truckloads are still being taken away.

'A lot of it's been hidden,” says Toby.

'We're finding a lot of the historical stuff that all the vegetation's grown over, but there's a lot of new stuff too…there are 10 TVs that would've only been dumped here in the last 12 months.”

Toby says the key is for children to learn how to avoid continuous clean-up of these areas and what they can do to reduce that impact.

'They're the future and the reality is that they're inheriting whatever problems I guess we give them. The important thing is for them to know there are things they can do to ensure that they have a future to move into.

'We talk about New Zealand being clean and green and the message for them will be you actually need to work at making sure that it stays that way.”

Madison Andrews, 10, Max Sim, 9, Jessie Wanihi, 9, Jahris Davies, 10.

Alex Erueti, 9, Mariah McAndrew, 9, Kairah Ryan, 10, and Ethan Hetaraka, 10.

Hugh-Linton Moss, 9, Luisa Togotogorua, 10, Aroha Mahmood, 10, and Uru Bluegum, 9.

Thomas Rihia, 10, and Dominic Eastwood, 10.






Photos by Tracy Hardy