Down The Drain

Down The Drain

In the year of 2016, students from Wilford School in Petone were snorkelling at Lowry Bay. They were astonished to find 253 pieces of garbage under the ocean. Three students named Harvey, Ethan and Jemma realised that litter from Petone was getting washed up to their local beach. With that said, the three students decided to do something about it! Harvey, Ethan and Jemma set up traps in two different drains located on Jackson Street, which is the main street in Petone. They examined different technologies and chose to use a model manufactured by LittaTrap™. The first trap was situated outside of restaurants and cafes located in the shopping area. The second trap was positioned at the end of the street encircled by houses. The LittaTrap™ lets the stormwater flow into the underground pipes and catches the garbage. Once a week, their teacher Mrs Webb drove the students to the two locations to empty the traps. Harvey, Ethan and Jemma sorted the garbage into categories including hard and soft plastics, food and paper. Finally, the students counted the items and entered the information onto a spreadsheet. They replicated this process for twelve weeks of time. Did you know glass takes one million years to break down? Surprisingly cardboard only takes 2 months to fully break down. At the end of their inspection, the students spent an evening sharing their discovery with the community. Using a calculator, the students estimated how much garbage is sent to Lowry Bay from Jackson Street every year. There are ninety three drains in total located in and around Jackson Street. One drain sends about 5,720 pieces of garbage a year. That simply meant 531,960 pieces of garbage are sent into Lowry Bay every year.