Rua's Eco-Heroes

Rua's enviro-focus this year has been rubbish. In 2016 we investigated storm water drains, so most of the students already knew that rubbish that is blown into these drain can end up in the sea. This year we've looked at the rubbish around the school and in Pukerua Bay. We've thought about how to stop this rubbish getting into the drains. 

Each week different classes clean up rubbish around the school but we wanted to find a more permanent solution. So we investigated what kind of rubbish there is around the school. We cleaned up around places we know there's usually a lot of rubbish, like behind Wairaka Block and at the start of the Skink Garden. We also got rubbish from the class bins. We laid the rubbish out on newspaper and sorted it into piles. Then we counted the rubbish and made graphs.

We found the most common types of rubbish were plastic, chippie and snack packets, tissues and food. Lots of rubbish is being blown around by the wind. This rubbish might come from people in the school, or people in the weekend. There were some beer bottles we think came from people in the weekend. Half eaten apples and mandarin skins have probably come from people in the school. We think some people are walking around while they are eating and leaving their food on the ground. We were also surprised to find uneaten food in the rubbish. 

Rua also walked around the streets of Pukerua Bay and picked up rubbish. This was just after Halloween, and it was disappointing to find Halloween sweet wrappers lying around. 

The students then wrote about their experiences. Here is a small sample of their amazing writing. Can they persuade you to clean up?

Imagine a world of rubbish with rubbish around the planet. It would be awful. It would be horrible and disgusting and gross and revolting. Plastic lying around the seas. It is bad for animals in seas. It kills fish and dolphins and whale and sharks and other sea creatures.

You must put your mandarin skinks in the rubbish bin. You have to put your apple cores in the worm bin please. You most definitely have to put your plastic in the bin and you must put lollie wrappers in the bin. If you don’t you will kill fish and whales and dolphins and crabs.

By Nina (age 7)

Do you like being tidy? Do you like the world to be clean? Do you throw rubbish everywhere? So rubbish is chippie packets, lolly wrappers, bar wrappers and plastic. Do you like to be dirty.

The problem is the animals will look at the rubbish and think that it is food and eat it. Then they will get sick and die!! Then the world will be terrible. That is why you need to put plastic, chippie packets, lolly wrappers and bar wrappers in the bin.

Please put your mandarin skins in the rubbish because mandarin skins rot in 2 years. If you don’t the school will be horrible and terrible. Put your apple cores in the worm bin because the school will be horrible and terrible.

So what have you learnt? How to be tidy.

By Henry (age 7)

Last week we cleaned up and I almost vomited because of the smell. It pong. I hope our school doesn’t get filled up with rubbish and we will have to stay inside and sleep at school and that will be horrible. And we found lots of lollie wrappers.

You must put your mandarin skin in the bin otherwise it is littering. You must put your rubbish in the bin otherwise it will kill you and it is serious. You must put your rubbish in the bin because it is littering. Don’t walk around with your food otherwise you will choke and you forget to put it in the bin. Don’t put your mandarin skins on the ground. It doesn’t feed the birds it is just littering.

By Stella (age 8)


When I was walking in Pukerua Bay School I was horrified. Our school was trashed with rubbish. There was rubbish everywhere like mandarin skins, chippie packets and lollie bags that our school could not have made we do not like that our school has so much rubbish in it. It is bad for the environment.

You truly need to put your mandarin skins in the rubbish it is littering and takes 2 years to rot away. You most definitely need to put your apple skins in the worm bin Do not throw away chippie packets or plastic it is littering. The wind blows it around and it goes down the drain and into the sea and the animals eat it and if you eat fish you might end up eating plastic. Our most common thing in our school are tissues chippie packets plastic eaten food and uneaten food.

By Lilah (age 6)