Beer bottles and undies found on beach cleanup day

Annual beach clean up by top beach volleyballers Sam O'Dea (left) and Ben O'Dea. Photo/Ben Fraser

Lots of beer bottles, pairs of undies and a couple of bongs were among the rubbish local volleyball stars picked up at Mount Maunganui beach over the weekend.

Sam and Ben O'Dea spend much of their time competing in international beach volleyball tournaments, but took the time out to hold a beach cleanup day on their home turf.

"We play and practice on this beach so much, and we see what the beach goes through in summer - it gets dirtier and dirtier," said Sam, 25.

The men and their friends picked up more than 20 big bags of rubbish in just a couple of hours at Leisure Island, the main beach and Mount Drury on Saturday.

"The majority has been beer bottles and cans, broken glass, and even five to six pairs of undies."

Sam said he could not understand why people did it when there were bins everywhere in the area.

Tauranga City Council donated the rubbish bags and gloves for the cleanup and Bay of Plenty Regional Council was funded a barbecue after the rubbish was all collected.

The O'Dea brothers were also running the cleanup as a fundraiser - getting local businesses to "sponsor" each bag of rubbish for $99.

The money would help get them around the world to compete - and eventually get them to the Commonwealth Games.

The brothers were off to Asia next to play and would spend the winter chasing the sun in Europe.