Large rubbish haul for clean-up crew

What a load of rubbish!

The first part of the Creeky Awesomeness Kaitiaki i te awa challenge got off to a filthy start last month when about 40 people helped to clean up Lindsay Creek at Chingford Park.

It was depressingly astounding how much we fished out, including three buckets of broken glass shards - yikes! And that is just from a short section of the creek, so better not go barefoot!

Six sacks of rubbish were also collected in the one-and-a-half-hour-long effort.

Co-organiser, OpenVUE (Open Valley Urban Ecosanctuary) educator Clare Cross says she was surprised at just how much rubbish was collected from a small area.

Much of the rubbish was half-buried and who knew how long it had been there leaching chemicals into the stream, she says.

“We also have eels living in the stream and they might be eating the rubbish.”

All the rubbish was sorted into treasure, trash and glass along with an intriguing mythology pile which led to us telling stories about a large metal hoop – a giant horse shoe perhaps and a long metal curling pipe, the tail of a metal dinosaur?

After listening to a fantastical tale of greedy Donald Trout, we all trooped off home to collect plastic bottles for the next Creeky session on Sunday 17 March from 2–4pm at the community rooms.

Come along and help make bird feeders, cat collars, and mini-plastic house for plants (collect those bottles please!)

For more details contact Clare on openvue@northeastvalley.org or Kaitrin on 027 460 9885.

A huge thank you to all our enviro-heroes, and do keep an eye out for another upcoming clean-up of some different sections of the creek.—Kaitrin McMullan