Whanganui Girls' College takes on beach waste as part of nationwide initiative

The Year 9 science class from Whanganui Girls' College took to the North Mole on Thursday, picking up rubbish and entering it into a nationwide database. Photo / Supplied

A Whanganui school is taking part in a nationwide effort to learn more and combat the country's litter problem.

Whanganui Girls' College, which is an Enviroschool, is participating in a Sustainable Coastlines initiative called Litter Intelligence.

Litter Intelligence is New Zealand's first national litter database, created to better understand the country's litter problem. Launched in May 2018, the programme is funded by the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund.

Jane Williams took her Year 9 science class to the North Mole on Thursday afternoon to start their research.

"Each site that is selected gets done four times a year and they have pretty strict parameters."

The class measured a 100m x 20m grid with the 30 students combing the beach and picking up any litter or rubbish.

"They comb that whole area and collect it into bags. Nothing organic, just anything that isn't that."

The class brought bags of rubbish back to school, where they would categorise it, chart it and then send it to Sustainable Coastlines to enter in their database.

"It's not someone else giving us the data," Williams said.

"They actually go out there and gather it hands-on and, because it's local, hopefully it makes it a little more meaningful.

"They get to repeat this. Then we can compare that data with other years that it has been down here and other similar beaches around the country and see if we can notice any patterns over time. If students identify an issue, hopefully there is a follow-up."

Williams said the students enjoyed the process and were very involved.

"It has to be done four times a year. They gave us all the equipment so we will be going back to the site in three months' time."

Williams wanted her class to have more focus on environmental issues New Zealand currently faces and hoped the experience will foster that awareness.

"People have found particular things on the beach and then followed that back to the source, manufacturers and factories, to see how it got there. It's a good initiative."