Volunteers needed for Sustainable Coastlines litter intelligence programme in Kāpiti

Sustainable Coastlines ise holding four beach cleanups in Kāpiti.

A litter intelligence programme is coming to Kāpiti’s beaches and volunteers are needed to help with it.

Sustainable Coastlines’ litter intelligence programme will be visiting four local beaches to conduct surveys and clean the areas.

Sustainable Coastlines engagement director Ben Knight said the Kāpiti Coast District Council approached them to collect beach data to help inform its litter and waste management work, which the council is doing as part of the implementation of the regional waste minimisation and management plan.

Knight said the beach sites, Raumati Beach, Ōtaki Beach, Queen Elizabeth Park, and the Ōtaki River mouth, were chosen based on community interest, and in this case, they chose a combination of pre-existing sites and new sites to give the council a good spread of data.

The surveys will involve removing all surface litter larger than 5mm from a measured 100m x 20m area of beach and then categorising, counting and weighting the items.

“The data collected is inputted into the national litter intelligence database where it is used for reporting and management purposes. The surveys are a fun and easy to do activity for volunteers who play a role in the programme as citizen scientists.”

Knight said the wider area cleanups involve removing litter from the wider area of beach and reserve surrounding the area that was surveyed. Reusable gloves and sacks are provided and a health and safety briefing is given before the cleanup and survey activities commence.

“We’ve run events large and small on the Kāpiti Coast before, but usually only need 10-15 people for a litter survey, so any extra hands are a bonus.

Sustainable Coastlines has run beach cleanups for 15 years. The litter intelligence programme, which the Kāpiti cleanups are a part of, has run for six years and is New Zealand’s only national beach litter monitoring programme.

“It was established to provide central and local government, communities, businesses and individuals with scientifically robust litter data.”

The surveys and beach cleanups run over November 9, 19, 23, and 26 and volunteers can register at sustainablecoastlines.org/events/.