Waitangi Day working bee to clean up plastic-strewn Greymouth beach

Tens of thousands of plastic bags covered Cobden Beach, Greymouth, after ex-Cyclone Fehi. Photo / Tony Kokshoorn

Greymouth residents are marking Waitangi Day with a massive cleanup to remove a large amount rubbish washed onto the beach during last week's storm.

Huge seas whipped up by ex-cyclone Fehi ate away a chunk of an old dump site at Cobden Beach, scattering tens of thousands of plastic bags across the coast.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn told Newstalk ZB's Chris Lynch diggers have been used to clean up the decades-old rubbish.

That effort will be topped off this morning with a massive community working bee.

Kokshoorn says the council has to move fast to stop the spread of the litter getting worse.

Work will start tomorrow on building a large wall to stop more rubbish washing into the sea.

The council decided last week to spend $800,000 to a $1 million building a protection wall as soon as possible.

An area about 50m back from the beach was used from the 1970s until the 1990s as a rubbish dump.

Over the years the rubbish has been blown closer to the beach, and covered by sand.