By Emily Norman
Rubbish will be eliminated from Castlepoint beach this weekend thanks to a new project set up by a Masterton student.
Chayla Beaver, 18, of Wairarapa College, has called Castlepoint home for her entire life.
She has been working for months to organise a beach clean-up, with help from her school and community.
The event has accumulated so much traction that Tranzit will be running a bus service to and from the beach on the day.
“We’re doing the beach clean-up, not necessarily because the beach is very messy, but more to create awareness,” Miss Beaver said.
“Castlepoint is one of the top 10 beaches, so we want to create awareness about it, especially locally.
“We really do have such an amazing coastline and we should do all we can to keep it that way.”
Starting at 10am on Saturday, volunteers will be split into groups to search the coastline for rubbish that has either been washed up or dropped on the beach.
Miss Beaver will also be educating participants with “the facts and figures of how litter affects not only the marine environment, but also the marine animals”.
“This is an issue throughout the world and needs to be made aware especially when the Wairarapa is surrounded by beautiful coast,” she said.
The clean-up day will collect data for the New Zealand initiative Love your Coast, a collaborative project which has overseen the collection of almost 3000 bags of rubbish from coastlines around the country.
There will be a sausage sizzle and entertainment area with live music after lunch on the day.
Miss Beaver, who hopes to study nursing next year, said after graduating she was going to try to make the Castlepoint Beach Clean-up an annual event.
For more details, visit the event’s Facebook page by searching Castlepoint Beach Clean-Up.
