Rena: Thousands of tonnes of waste disposed

More than 2000 tonnes of liquid and solid waste has been disposed of from the Rena disaster. Photo / Mark Mitchell

More than 2000 tonnes of liquid and solid waste has been disposed of from the Rena disaster so far, Maritime New Zealand says.

Good weather has been aiding salvage efforts this week, although swells are forecast to increase later in the week, with a change in the weather to northeasterly winds.

Twenty containers were removed from the stricken vessel, which has been grounded on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga since October 5, bring the total number of containers removed to 165.

Maritime New Zealand said there has been no change to the state of the vessel overnight, and while a light sheen of oil extends from the vessel, no black oil is visible.

So far, 960 tonnes of waste has been disposed of from shoreline cleanup operations.

Another 1331 tonnes of liquid waste has come from the bird washing process at the wildlife centre where 245 penguins and 43 dotterels are still housed.

Fifty-six little blue penguins are almost ready to be released and large numbers are awaiting reintroduction to salt water to prepare them for release.

So far 7950 people have registered as volunteers, as well as 154 groups, including corporate groups, which include another 4904 people.

Volunteers have spent 18,975 hours working on beach clean-ups and 750 hours have been worked under the Adopt-A-Beach programme.

As the volunteer response has begun to drop off, the last planned beach cleans for volunteers will take place at Papamoa East opposite Grant Place at 8am each day until this Sunday.

- NZ HERALD ONLINE