Hundreds of volunteers have helped collect a staggering 77,000 litres of rubbish from the Manukau Harbour coastline.
With help from the community, Sustainable Coastlines and the Watercare Harbour Clean-up Trust, were able to scoop two and a half shipping containers full of litter from areas like Mangere Bridge and Weymouth.
Five times this amount of rubbish was collected from the Manukau Harbour coastline
Students from Sutton Park School help clean up Puketutu Island
Fletcher Sunde from Sustainable Coastlines says while the achievement is impressive, it's disappointing the beautiful locations are being treated as dumping grounds.
"We know there's a lot of rubbish out there, I know that we could collect two, three times this amount if we were out there for longer, if we had more resources."
Among the trash collected, thousands of plastic bottles, car parts, tyres and even old furniture.
"I just think it's a lack of connection, a lack of caring really about our coast and about our waterways and about our harbours," says Mr Sunde.
The biggest concern for Sustainable Coastlines is the huge amount of single-use plastic that was fished out of the water.
Mr Sunde says it not only impacts on sea life, but it can also harm humans.
"To be honest, we don't know the full extent of it yet. Because a lot of it is plastic based and the plastics leech chemicals and toxins into the water and then they slowly accumulate up the food chain and really we’re just starting to understand the full ramifications of that."
The team will recycle what they can from the bags of trash, the rest will be taken to the tip.
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