Lazy Kiwis litter beaches with butts

Growing numbers of lazy Kiwis are dumping cigarette butts and food wrappers on beaches, tarnishing the country's clean, green image, a new report shows.

The report, by international agency Ocean Conservancy, shows beaches in Australia and Thailand have less litter than New Zealand, which recorded an average of 21 kilograms of rubbish per 1.6 kilometres during an international beach cleanup day last September.

This compares with an average of 1.8kg of coastal rubbish in Australia and 7kg in Thailand. Two of the biggest offenders were the United States with 177kg and Britain, with 245kg per 1.6km. The amount of coastline covered varied widely between countries.

The report said the main item dumped on New Zealand beaches was cigarette butts, followed by bottle caps and lids, food wrappers, containers and beverage bottles.

Forest and Bird conservation advocate Kirstie Knowles said she was not surprised. Kiwis were becoming more lazy and the report should act as a wake-up call.

"We tend to assume that we are clean and green, but we are finding increasing amounts of litter."

Volunteers worldwide scoured about 53,000km of shoreline in 76 countries, collecting 2.7 million kilograms of debris and rubbish during the annual cleanup.

Ocean Conservancy president Vikki Spruill said the cleanup was a reminder that the world's oceans were "sick".

Overall, 57 per cent of the rubbish was from shoreline recreational activities, 33 per cent from smoking-related activities, 6 per cent from fishing, 2 per cent from dumping trash and less than 1 per cent from medical and personal hygiene activities, the report said.

Ms Knowles said the results tallied with a cleanup organised by Forest and Bird last month on Wellington's Oriental Bay beach, which netted more than 30kg of rubbish in two hours.

Cigarette butts and food wrappers were the leading polluters, but hazardous items found included a used syringe, sanitary pads, condoms and broken glass.

Participants were shocked as council staff cleaned the beach daily.

"It's basically laziness," she said of those doing the littering. "There's lots of bins around city centres and in our homes."

LOAD OF RUBBISH

Average amount of litter collected from a mile (1.6 kilometres) of beachfront and water during Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day last September:

Australia: 1.8 kilograms

Thailand: 7 kilograms

New Zealand: 21 kilograms

China: 31 kilograms

Canada: 34 kilograms

Mexico: 71 kilograms

United States: 177 kilograms

United Kingdom: 245 kilograms

- © Fairfax NZ News