Beach pain in the butt

Smoking sunbathers left their mark on the Waikato region's beaches with cigarette butts all 2414 of them the most common item of litter in the 500kg of rubbish picked up during a clean-up this year.

The butts were closely followed by plastic bags (2121) and glass bottles (1574). Other rubbish cleared from beaches included 689m of fishing rope/line and 54 shoes. These were just some of the findings, presented to Environment Waikato's environment committee yesterday, to emerge from a waste audit following a series of beach clean-ups in early March.

The regional council's coastal community education facilitator, Sam Stephens, said 11 schools and more than 800 participants were involved in the Seaweek clean-up at locations on the west coast and Coromandel Peninsula. He said the purpose of the waste audit was to quantify the types of rubbish on the beaches so the sources could be established and problem areas identified.

- © Fairfax NZ News