Keep Hamilton Beautiful cleans up Chartwell's Donny Park

Anna Petchell is keeping Hamilton beautiful by collecting rubbish off streets. Photo / Supplied

A group of 38 Hamiltonians were involved in the first Keep Hamilton Beautiful Clean Up 2021 in Chartwell's Donny Park, helping to tidy up the city.

The event was organised by Anna Petchell, who is heading the newly created Hamilton branch of Keep New Zealand Beautiful. Petchell has a history of being involved in voluntary efforts picking up rubbish around Hamilton.

"I've spent a fair bit of time overseas, working in the yachting industry on boats and in ports. It's there where I began picking up rubbish to help make a difference in countries that I believed were worse off than New Zealand, well at least that's what I thought."

Returning to New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic, Petchell quickly realised New Zealand wasn't any better, so she began picking up rubbish around the streets of Hamilton, with support from the city council.

In regard to the first of many clean-ups, Petchell was really impressed with the turnout on the day and the progress made. Groups of friends, families and even those who came by themselves all banded together like they had known each other for years, tramping around the park picking up rubbish.

"Every small bit counts towards making this world a cleaner place – that was really clear to see with so many awesome people showing up to pick up rubbish in their own time," she says.

In 90 minutes, the group collected 1250kg of rubbish from the pathways, gullies and green areas of the park, which was disposed into a 9sq m skip donated by Purposefill Skips.

"Carting the rubbish up the path to the skip was made easier by the 16 trolleys found littered throughout the park," said Petchell.

Along with shopping trolleys and general waste, the team picked up items of clothing, bedding, camping equipment, plastic ziplock bags, metal poles and used tyres – all things that could have been reused.

As a small reward for the hard work, Sunny Nelson Ice Creams donated 50 ice creams. Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate also thanked those involved: "Our green spaces are really important to people in our city and one of the reasons we won New Zealand's Most Beautiful Large City Award last year. We can all play our part in keeping them free of rubbish."

This year's New Zealand's Most Beautiful City Awards will be held in Auckland on Thursday, October 28.

If you're interested in future clean-up events, go to Keep New Zealand Beautiful Hamilton's Facebook page to see when and where the next event will take place.