Horowhenua's environmental heroes, Brendon, 6, Caleb, 7, and Anthony, 9 - also known as the Waste Warriors - are still showing the community how it's done . Photo / Nikki Carroll
Horowhenua's environmental heroes, Brendon, 6, Caleb, 7, and Anthony, 9 - also known as the Waste Warriors - are still showing the community how it's done . Photo / Nikki Carroll
Horowhenua's Waste Warriors have been leading the way in care for our local environment for over a year now.
Such is the impact they have made, the team from Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) emailed their mum earlier this year to ask the boys to take part in a new citizen science project called Upstream Battle.
A media release from KNZB in February stated the aim of Upstream Battle is to identify the most common on-land sources and types of litter, using volunteers and citizen science to gather valuable data.
The Waste Warriors parents, Janelle and Josh, were stunned by the type of rubbish dumped at the river, including clothes, part of a vehicle chassis, and a busted cash register. Photo / Supplied
According to KNZB, marine litter is a huge problem but one that is difficult to quantify as the litter is often brought indirectly to the sea by rivers, sewage, stormwater or winds.
KNZB's CEO Heather Saunderson said many of the existing cleanups conducted by volunteers and councils across the country focus on beach cleanups or removing litter already in the sea.
"But with so much marine litter originating on land, we need to identify where it's coming from so that we can stop this litter entering the sea in the first place."
The Waste Warriors took part in another Keep NZ Beautiful clean up project on March 1 - the Upstream Battle - focusing on a 5 metre radius at Gladstone River. Photo / Supplied
The Waste Warriors, along with mum Janelle and dad Josh, headed to the Gladstone River reserve on the first day of autumn (March 1) to complete their survey.
"We spent about an hour at the river that night," said Janelle, "then at least another couple of hours collating the data for the rubbish we collected."
The family were sent a seven-page survey form to complete, which required very specific information about the location of the clean-up, including the GPS coordinates of the area, and included a comprehensive litter recording form.
The Hazel family found over 150 items of rubbish at the Gladstone River reserve during their clean up as part of KNZB's Upstream Battle project. Photo / Supplied
In total the Waste Warriors collected 165 items of rubbish, with the highest count being glass fragments (46) and sanitary products (31) which included toilet paper and wipes.
"There was even a burnt-out car body and an old cash register," said Janelle.
KNZB have suggested to the family they return to the site on a seasonal basis to check if there are certain times of the year when the rubbish gathering is higher.
Dad Josh is keen to get the boys out to do more Upstream Battle cleanups – with the streams feeding into Lake Horowhenua in his sights.
The Waste Warriors have been involved in a number of larger environmental events over the past six months, such as Clean Up Week and Get Outdoors Week in 2021, with both their local school (Levin North) and council-run events.
If you're keen to help out with future cleanups (especially over the school holidays), or are running an environmental event you'd like the Waste Warriors to be part of, get in touch with mum Janelle through their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Waste-Warriors-109044838112737.
