On Monday the 16th March, the Year 11 and 12 Geography classes went on a field trip to Anderson’s Bay Inlet, Ravensbourne, Aramoana and Blackhead to research plastics and the extent to which waste was ending up on our beaches.

The plan was to measure 200m along each beach and look carefully for any rubbish that was there. We had specific categories for the waste collected.

Anderson’s Bay inlet was still by far the worst with over 384 pieces of rubbish jammed into the rocks and vegetation, however this was down on the 1000 pieces found in 2019 and may be indicative of a reduction in single use plastics. The plastic bag ban seems to be working as we found zero plastic bags across the 4 study zones. Aramoana was next on the trip and we found 43 pieces of rubbish that had been brought in with the tide. Blackhead was still pretty bad with over 153 pieces of waste. Clearly people are still dumping waste from the car park.

The students are using their data to complete a 5 credit research assignment on what is the most common form of rubbish found on Otago’s coastline. With over 690 pieces of rubbish found the message is dispose of your waste properly! Overall the students found this an eye opening experience and the trip has changed some of the student’s viewpoints about what is clean and green and what is not.