In less than two hours the four volunteers cleared out five bags of rubbish. Photo / Supplied
After finding a "shocking" amount of rubbish washing up at Ohinemutu, one Rotorua man decided to do something about it.
Nathan Fletcher was paddle boarding on Lake Rotorua when he came across a shoreline littered with rubbish, including plastic bottles, beer cans and household waste.
On Sunday he went back with a team of four volunteers and rubbish bags to clean it all up.
"It only took one and a half, maybe two hours," he said.
"We're pretty happy with what we managed to achieve."
The team pulled out five bags of rubbish plus several plastic containers, which were all disposed of by Rotorua Lakes Council.
"There were shoes, bottles, cans, lots of plastic bags and even a toy Smurf," Fletcher said.
"We've got a bit more to do so we'll paddle around a few more of the bays over the next few weeks."
Fletcher said as long as people continued to dump rubbish into the Utuhina Stream there would be a constant build-up of rubbish.
"Unless something is done to stop the flow of surface rubbish we will keep seeing this down here."
A regular lake user, Fletcher said he was happy to keep up the cleaning and go down every few months to clear things away.
"It doesn't take much to pick up a few pieces of rubbish and put it in the bin.
"It's shocking to see how much rubbish people do contribute and unfortunately there will always be people who behave like this.
"Now we've got it all out, we need to try to keep it clean."
The co-op has posted a $14.3 million net loss after tax for the year ended June 2024.