2024 Alumni Charity Update: Sustainable Coastlines

On the 4th of April, 2009, 700 legends came together and removed a massive 2.8 tonnes of rubbish from the coastline of Aotea Great Barrier Island. Why? Because they loved the beach and wanted to protect it. That was their first-ever clean-up as Sustainable Coastlines. 15 years on, they’re still motivating people to protect the beaches they love.

This year Sustainable Coastlines zeroed in on their goal to see significantly less litter on Aotearoa’s beaches. They removed more than 60,000 litres of litter from our marine ecosystems in the last financial year. That saw them tick over to 1.8 million litres total! For perspective, that’s the equivalent of 15,000 shopping trolleys full of litter!

The ocean is that much better off thanks to the amazing volunteers, community groups, and businesses they work with. The behaviour change that comes along with it is equally worth celebrating. More people having that little ‘aha’ moment when they pick up one too many single-use bottles and decide to make a change to protect the places they love.

Check out these impressive Sustainable Coastlines stats from the past financial year:

• 60,820 litres of litter removed from our coastlines18
• 16,166 volunteer hours
• 1,424 Education and training hours
• 1,365 Activities held
• 87 Clean-up activities
• 3,678 Clean-up participants
• 542 Litter Intelligence Beach Surveys
• 5,384 Litter Intelligence Participants in Citizen Science

6 Years of Litter Intelligence in Aotearoa

Sustainable Coastlines has completed a record number of litter surveys — around 2,000 more than in recent years. This is just one indication of the momentum of their Litter Intelligence programme, reflecting the interest people have in contributing data to influence real change when it comes to plastic pollution.

Litter Intelligence data can tell us things such as litter density, where our litter hotspots are, and litter composition. This allows policymakers to understand things such as how much of a problem plastic is on our coastlines. The data contributes to Stats NZ’s wellbeing indicators. It has also had an influence on policy, with its inclusion in the documents that informed the government’s phase-out of problem plastic.

Anne Taylor monitors the Steeple Rock and Breaker Bay sites in Wellington Harbour with her group. For citizen scientists who take part in the programme, being able to contribute at that level is meaningful.

“I feel positive about my impact as a citizen scientist because collecting data is going to lead to real change beyond a simple beach clean-up. With data from groups like ours around the country, it has the power to change things at an industry or policy level. When I feel despairing about the state of our oceans and environment, I remember that even small things can make a difference.”

In six years of Litter Intelligence, the programme has helped to inform government reports and policy, with a multitude of solutions taken by schools, community groups, and businesses. This momentum is a great sign that national efforts will combine with international efforts to tackle plastic pollution, and the role of data to provide the insight needed to deliver on our ambitions.

National Energy Globe Award

The Energy Globe Award is considered the most respected award for sustainability worldwide. This organisation chose Sustainable Coastlines as the 2023 New Zealand winner for their innovative Litter Intelligence program.

Energy Globe aims to present successful sustainable projects to a global audience and to demonstrate that for most of our environmental problems, feasible solutions are already available.

Ulrike Straka, Austrian Trade Commissioner, presented the award to Sustainable Coastlines at the charity’s Flagship Education Centre. Straka said that this year, thousands of projects have been submitted from more than 180 countries.

“It’s awarded annually to projects saving our environment by personal action, sustainable projects or campaigns for raising awareness in sustainability. Both the quality and the diversity of the submitted projects are overwhelming, which made it very difficult to choose the very best project,” said Straka.

This isn’t the first time that Sustainable Coastlines has been honoured by Energy Globe. In 2018, they were the proud recipients of the even more prestigious International Energy Globe Award in the ‘Youth’ category for their work with young people.

This time, Litter Intelligence was submitted in the ‘Water’ category. Alongside coastal litter data, the programme enables citizen scientists to collect data from freshwater and stormwater sites. Through monitoring litter before it reaches the coast and collecting it in an open-source database, a greater understanding of how litter affects our wider water systems is achieved. This informs decision-makers on how to best keep our freshwater reserves free of pollution such as plastic.

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‍Words and image supplied by Sustainable Coastlines.

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As a One Percent Collective alumni charity, we now post just one Sustainable Coastlines update per year. If you'd like more frequent updates from Sustainable Coastlines, join their newsletter list here.

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