Our North Shore beaches are places of beauty and pleasure – from swimming, surfing, sailing, fishing, to myriad other activities – we all have a way to seek enjoyment and restoration at the shore. Our beaches are also places of cultural and spiritual significance. The moana (sea) and the tapātai (shoreline) have particular importance to tangata whenua. And our coastline is a key habitat for many species of native wildlife.
It’s a resource that matters so much to all of us, but one we may sometimes take for granted. Every so often, a member of our community is willing to go further to make a real difference to our beaches.
We wanted to make a difference for our community
On a Wednesday in September, visitors to Minnehaha, Takapuna and Milford beaches or Milford creek may have seen an interesting sight – a small group of lawyers and office workers, in very different attire from an ordinary Wednesday, braving the mud in the mangroves and striding the beach, checking rock walls and rock pools for rubbish they could carry away.
Who were they? A North Shore based boutique law practice, The Environmental Lawyers. And why were they there? They had chosen to spend their annual team day doing a beach clean-up run specifically for their office by Sustainable Coastlines.
The Environmental Lawyers specialises in resource management, climate change, alcohol licensing, local government, public works and valuation. Stephanie Burns, office manager, says that doing a beach clean-up around Milford and Takapuna beaches was an easy choice for a team day. “Our company values align so well with this kind of event; we wanted to make a difference and to be part of creating an environmental benefit for our community.”
Stephanie and her team were surprised by the amount of litter they found. “As locals, we walk these beaches frequently and hadn’t previously noticed much litter. We all were so shocked by how much there was when we actually went looking for it.”
The team spent a full day on the coastline and in the mangroves, and bags of rubbish piled up at the collection point. A whopping load of 680 litres of rubbish was removed, which was a remarkable effort for the small but hardy team. “At the end of the day, everyone felt a sense of accomplishment about the impact they had made. That pile of full bags was a strong visual for us of what we’d been able to achieve.”
Sustainable Coastlines
Sustainable Coastlines provided the training and resources to make the team day out work so well. The day started with a presentation from Sustainable Coastlines co-founder Sam Judd MNZM. Stephanie says it was both educational and inspiring. “We learned such a lot and felt really motivated to get out there and make a difference.”
Sam aims to provide education, awareness, and solutions that the team can take back to their everyday life, so a “beach day out” can become more than a one-off clean-up event.
Sustainable Coastlines is a charity that “brings people together to reduce plastic pollution and other litter to protect the moana we all love”. They go further than organising beach and waterway clean-ups; they also provide education to schools, train and equip volunteers, and run a citizen data-gathering project called Litter Intelligence, which won an Energy Globe Award in 2024. Litter Intelligence creates high-quality data about the litter collected from a range of beach, freshwater and stormwater sites, and that data inspires insights and action around litter prevention. It works in close collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation and Statistics New Zealand.
You may also have seen Sustainable Coastlines' education centre, The Flagship, in Wynyard Quarter. This initiative picked up the International Energy Globe Award in the Youth category for its work with young people. It provides a platform for a range of sustainability activities to take place around Waitematā Harbour.
The idea for Sustainable Coastlines started with 1.6 tonnes of litter
In 2008, Sam, a keen surfer and outdoors lover from Aotea Great Barrier, was volunteering for the Galápagos National Park with his friends James Bailey and Zach Beard. The islands are 1000 km west of Ecuador; they are almost entirely uninhabited and are the largest, near-unspoiled island group in the world. Despite the lack of human inhabitants, ocean currents deliver plastic waste to this coastline at an astonishing rate. Sam, James, and Zach, along with local fishermen, removed 1.6 tonnes of waste in just eight days.
Sam said, “The size of that rubbish heap – collected from uninhabited coastlines in a UNESCO World Heritage site – brought home the fact that this was a huge issue that was affecting every country in the world.”
Over 2009 and 2010, the group ran volunteer clean-ups in New Zealand and the Pacific. On Aotea Great Barrier, the waste collected grew year on year from 2.8 to 3.1 tonnes of waste. “That showed us that intercepting the waste before it escaped into the environment wasn’t enough; we needed to do something to reduce it at the source.”
The reality of plastic in our environment
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) estimates that over eight million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. It’s a terrible sight to see litter on a beach or plastic floating in the sea, choking birds or sea life. And yet that is only the most visible form of the harm from pollution. The pollution we don’t see – plastic, in particular, degrades over time to micro- and nanometre-sized particles – may do the greatest harm of all.
Much has been written about the negative impacts of microplastics in the environment and the harm they can cause to both wildlife and humans if they enter the food chain. You can learn more about microplastics at the UN Environment Programme website here: unep.org/news-and-stories/story/everything-you-should-know-about-microplastics
Since its inception, Sustainable Coastlines has removed over 1.8 million tonnes of pollution from beaches and waterways. Yet it’s the educational activities with students and communities that will likely have the biggest impact on our future water quality and coastlines. That’s because real and sustainable change comes by reducing the amount of plastic we consume and refusing unnecessary packaging.
Sustainable Coastlines' mission is to enable people to protect the beaches they love from litter. According to litter data collected through its Litter Intelligence programme, 75% of that litter is currently plastic.
Taking on the battle against plastic pollution – how you can help
Consider a team event for your organisation, club or school. Team-building events are a great way to take a first step in sustainability efforts – it’s not only giving a helping hand to the environment in your local community, but it’s also getting your team out of the office, working with your colleagues on a shared goal, and is good for everybody’s sense of well-being.
“Sometimes people feel overwhelmed by the size of environmental issues and think one person can’t really change anything.” Sam says, “But at a team event like the one we ran for The Environmental Lawyers in Milford, you can physically see your efforts are making a difference.”
You can learn more about tailored team building events with Sustainable Coastlines here: sustainablecoastlines.org/get-involved/book-an-event/
There are other ways you can help. Sustainable Coastlines also runs large beach clean-ups that are open to anyone who wants to come along, and these are advertised on its website. There is also the opportunity to become a citizen data collector for Litter Intelligence, Aotearoa’s first and only national litter monitoring programme, which you can learn more about at litterintelligence.org
Sustainable Coastlines has a wide range of long-term supporters, both corporate and individuals, including Benefitz, the publishers of Channel Magazine. Your organisation or business could also consider making a donation or partnering with Sustainable Coastlines on a longer-term project. Contact them at info@sustainablecoastlines.org . Or make a donation at love.sustainablecoastlines.org/donate
