Matatā Residents Rally for Town Clean-Up This Sunday

A community clean-up in Matatā this Sunday aims to tackle roadside rubbish and encourage younger generations to take pride in the town.

Matatā residents will take to the streets this Sunday for the town’s biannual clean-up effort aimed at reducing roadside rubbish and keeping the community tidy.

Matatā Residents Association organiser Linda Rowbotham said the clean-ups, held at the beginning of summer and before winter, are largely focused on rubbish left behind by motorists and visitors passing through the town.

“We have camper vans and lots of people stop in Matatā and often they actually empty all their rubbish into our local bins, which is fine, but on the odd occasion they get a little bit overfull and we end up with rubbish blowing around the edges of the lagoon and the likes.

“We do get people dumping all sorts of things actually, whether it be bait or bottles or cans or just food rubbish, just throwing it out on the side of the road, on the outskirts of town or sometimes down by the beach,” she said.

Rowbotham was inspired to start the clean ups five years ago after seeing a Keep New Zealand Beautiful campaign. 

"When I saw Keep New Zealand Beautiful put out a thing a while back, I pushed for our group to get behind it and promote it.

"Since then I've tried to organise one in the end of summer and then we have another one towards the end of winter so that we do it twice a year."

Bringing the community together to care for the town was an important step towards creating pride in Matatā, she said.

“There’s a lot of people out there trying to keep New Zealand beautiful and it would be great if everyone played their part and thought about the concept that if everyone threw something out the window every day while they were driving their vehicles, imagine what a pigsty the place would be.”

Volunteers were often surprised by the amount of rubbish hidden along roadsides that was not immediately visible from passing vehicles, said Rowbotham.

Typically, about 20 volunteers from the residents association and groups including Ngāti Rangitihi collect around half a tonne of rubbish during each clean-up.

The rubbish collected ranges from food wrappers and bottles to discarded car and truck tyres.

Bags from previous clean ups in Matatā. IMAGE: Supplied. 

This week's event will be held on a Sunday for the first time in an effort to encourage more families and young people to take part.

"It was brought to my attention that a lot of the people in Matatā that have young people, they have sport on the Saturday, so we're going to give it a go for a Sunday."

"So hopefully people will be able to bring their younger ones with them and try and educate them a little bit about keeping the area clean and tidy."

Spot prizes donated by local businesses will also be available on the day.

Rowbotham said the residents association is working with the Whakatāne District Council to have bins emptied more regularly to help prevent overflow issues.

“Everyone really appreciates it and I think in general there’s a lot of conscientious people around our town.”