Clean-up spurs plastic plea
Cigarette butts along with lots of of different plastic made up the majority of rubbish collected during a recent beach clean-up in Nelson.
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology trainee ranger student Marti Armengol decided to lead the clean-up and along with 20 fellow students spent a day last week collecting rubbish off Tahunanui Beach.
Armengol said he studied mar- ine science in his native Spain and was passionate about reducing waste in the environment.
He had lived in New Zealand for five years and loved the country.
‘‘Plastic is toxic and dangerous for not only human health but any living creature on this planet,’’ he said
‘‘It can’t be reabsorbed by our planet, some plastics need more than 1000 years to decompose.’’
Half an iPhone, plastic food wrappers and even pages from the bible and the karma sutra were amongst the rubbish collected by the group.
He wanted to encourage others to reduce their use of plastic.
Clean Up Week is an initiative organised by Keep New Zealand Beautiful to encourage communities to get together to pick up rubbish in their local regions.
A list of public events is available on the Keep New Zealand Beautiful website www.knzb.org.nz/public-events