By Leah Breach, AUT Journalism Student About 50 volunteers have helped to remove supermarket trolleys, road cones, tyres, and other assorted rubbish from east Auckland’s Botany Creek. The community clean-up event on May 24 was organised by the Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society (TEPS) and hosted by the Highland Park Community House, which funded a skip bin for the waste. Among other rubbish volunteers and TEPS members removed from the creek were a fence, a netball hoop, poles, balls including ping-pong, tennis and soccer balls, around 80 nerf gun bullets, beer bottles and cans, piles of plastic bags, clothing, an umbrella, polystyrene, small plastic items and more. Dr Julie Chambers, chairperson of TEPS, says Botany Creek is “an important local waterway”. “Major issues for Botany Creek are pollution, from toxic chemicals such as zinc and lead, plastics, sediment, and sewage. “Pollution flushes down the creek and into the estuary. It kills and drives away local wildlife by destroying local food sources and, when eaten, causes illness and death.” She says maintaining healthy streams is essential for the survival of native freshwater species. The clean-up was prompted by a local resident who says she was tired of seeing waste at the creek. “I live in this area, and I go around the corner to go down Pakūranga Highway every single morning. For months, I saw all the litter on the bank, and I got sick of looking at it.” Highland Park Community House manager Jennie McCormick says the attendees had a shared goal. “The clean-up went extremely well and we were all there for the same thing – to try and clean up and make a difference if we could.” Bruce Kendall, TEPS committee member and environmentalist, says such clean-up events are important. “It’s not just the fact we’ve gone through and cleaned the stream – that’s a temporary thing and it will get dirty again – but it’s to send out the message that we care.” On infrastructure challenges, he says: “Our pipes aren’t big enough to be able to accommodate all the sewage going through. “It’s very expensive to solve that, digging up the ground through people’s properties and putting in bigger pipes. “So, we have to understand the impacts of the things that we do, like not putting fats down the sink, being careful what we put down the drain.” Chambers says TEPS is grateful to those who turned out to help and is eager to keep helping local communities run creek clean-ups. “It’s heartening to see how many people care about our local streams. “Auckland Council cannot look after the streams as well as our local communities.”