Not Your Typical Day At The Beach

The shoreline has traditionally been regarded as an educational resource for a wide range of subjects at various levels. The Keep Christchurch Beautiful Campaign Education Committee has taken advantage of this underrated resource and are using it to educate Christchurch school children on the effects littering can have on our environment and wildlife.

Fifteen thousand Christchurch school pupils took part in the Campaign's annual Gigantic Beach Clean-up held this past December. As in the previous nine years, all those schools within walking distance of the coast covering Taylor's Mistake up to Spencer Park Beach, were invited to take part. To keep them going on their Trek for Trash, students were rewarded with stickers and posters, and schools received book vouchers for their time, effort and organisation.

Pupils were shocked to find that a lot of the rubbish polluting the beaches around our coastline is not only the fault of littering landlubbers, but is also the result of poorly handled ship waste. Proof of this was in the type of items found. This included a Korean deodorant, foreign sweet packets and an array of marine litter such as fishing nets, lines and bait boxes.

Keep Christchurch Beautiful Campaign members are confident that, by bringing this problem to the attention of the future decision makers - the younger generation, changes in behaviour will result.

Kerry Everingham
Keep Christchurch Beautiful Co-ordinator
Ph: 371-1779