the annual "Mother of all Cleanups" litter clean up 2024
Saturday, 11 May 2024, on Mothers' day weekend hundreds of caring residents gave Mother Nature their gift by cleaning up her waterways from carelessly discarded rubbish the day before Mothers day. THANKS TO ALL who participated.
We do this on the day before Mothers Day when community groups encourage their members to spend just 2 hours between 10 and noon to collect litter from their allocated stretch of a waterway.
From 5 groups in the inaugural event in 2015 the event has grown to in 2024, 64 community groups, businesses and schools groups collected 2.4 tonnes of rubbish. This was then properly disposed of by City Care Ltd staff. There were as many as 376 bags of rubbish and 101large items (which did not fit in bags) collected. Sadly in addition to the litter 342 dog poo piles on the water edges were counted as well. Shame that some dog owners do not realize how disgusting this is to people trying to enjoy a walk along our waterways not how this adds to pollution of water in waterways. Apart from litter being unsightly, many small littered items are mistaken for food and ingested by fish, birds, and once having floated into our oceans by whales, turtles and dolphins.
The PickUp5 campaign support this event by encouraging everyone to just pick up 5 littered items whenever you go outside for a walk of just check your gutter!
The aim of the event is to encourage other cities to do the same and make this an annual and nationwide event..
Between 10am and 12 noon
Along the entire Avon and Heathcote Rivers, Lyttelton Harbour Basin, Beach, Estuary edge, Parks and school grounds
More Info
Community groups have ‘adopted’ allocated stretches of our estuary and rivers to clean up.
General public can help by attending the clean up at Sumner and New Brighton beaches OR look in front of your homes and check the gutters for litter. Pick it up before it enters the storm water system and from there into our waterways.
Think; “High Five, pick up Five”.
If we all picked up 5 items every time we go for a walk there would not be ANY litter!!!
