The company responsible for the removal and processing of containers from the Rena wreck is reporting major progress in the clean up of Matakana Island.

Braemar Howells is focusing clean-up efforts on the island this week with helicopter and barge operations underway to remove pieces of containers and debris.

Clean-up operations on Matakana Island. Photo taken on January 19 LOC.

A total of 12 containers washed ashore on Matakana Island after the Rena broke up on January 8, sending about 150 containers overboard.

The island became littered with timber, plastic beads, paper and milk powder.

Company spokeswoman Monique O'Connor says great in-roads are being made this week.

This work includes using machinery to cut containers on the island and heli-lifting the pieces to waiting barges.

A total of nine containers have so far been removed, with three remaining on the island, which Monique says will be removed in a 'later operation”.

Timber is being stacked and towed to a waiting barge at Orokawa Bay, where one container still remains on the beach and is set to be cut up in the near future.

Monique says two containers corralled in the Bowentown area have been cut up underwater and removed.

Clean-up work is continuing further down the East Coast in the Waihou Bay area where debris amounts are small but widely scattered.

A coastal recovery vessel is in operation in the area when weather permits.

Braemar is also continuing sonar sweeping operations to locate further containers found on the sea floor.

A total of 463 containers have been recovered from Rena by salvors and discharged at the port by Braemar, while a further 65 have been recovered from the beaches and the water.