“It’s a bit like a treasure hunt!” Words you might not expect to hear from students who are picking up rubbish.

Zespri AIMS Games athletes removed nearly 90kg of waste from the beach and waterways at two coastal clean-ups this week, with 19kg of what they collected able to be diverted for recycling.

As well as the clean-ups at Hopukiore (Mount Drury) and Gordon Spratt Reserve, AIMS athletes helped plant 1000 trees at Kōpūrererua Valley.

The athletes joined students from Toi Ohomai to plant a range of larger and smaller native trees including kahikatea, rewarewa and totara, in an area where grazed farmland at Kōpūrererua Valley is being restored back to natural wetlands and native forest.

The clean-ups and tree planting formed part of Zespri AIMS Games Gives Back, a programme of activities led by Tauranga City Council that encouraged AIMS athletes to express environmental kaitiakitanga by ‘giving back’ to their host city.

This year’s Zespri AIMS Games, held 7 – 13 September in Tauranga Moana, was the biggest yet, and with it came an opportunity to expand the Gives Back programme, which the council launched two years ago as part of the Games.

“We value our natural environment in Tauranga, and environmental sustainability is an important part of the AIMS kaupapa, so we wrapped a larger suite of sustainable actions and activities into the Gives Back programme,” said Jenna Quay, acting Venues and Events Manager.

Athletes from St Andrews College in Christchurch have taken part in the coastal clean-ups every year.

Teacher Morgan Sheppard said it was important for the team to “do some service” while they were here.

“We get them to do it to give back to Tauranga. And once they get started, they always enjoy it,” he said.

For 2024, the council devised a competition to help generate awareness and enthusiasm for the Gives Back programme.

Participants were able to scan QR codes at each activity to earn points for their school, with a leaderboard being updated in real time on the official Zespri AIMS Games app.

Sustainable transport was included in the competition, with bus trips earning the lion’s share of points for schools.

Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council provided free buses to help athletes to get to their venues and reduce the number of cars on the road during a particularly busy week.

Over 300 people used the buses each day, and the park and ride service for the opening ceremony was booked to capacity.

Boomerang mugs, an AIMS initiative that was brought into this year’s Gives Back programme, encouraged customers to borrow reusable mugs for use at the coffee vendors instead of being served takeaway drinks in disposable cups. Globally, over 500 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away every year.

“Coffee vendors across the different venues were really keen to help promote the use of reusable cups,” said Kelly Schischka, Zespri AIMS Games Tournament Director.

“The boomerang mugs were perhaps targeted more at the adults than the younger athletes. But we all know how important coffee is for the support crews!”

Tauranga City Council is a strategic partner of the Zespri AIMS Games, along with Sport Bay of Plenty and Ōtūmoetai Intermediate, Mount Maunganui Intermediate, Tauranga Intermediate and Te Puke Intermediate, the four intermediate schools that founded the AIMS Games in 2004.

The council supports a range of initiatives, including a pōhiri to welcome international athletes at the start of the Games.

Jenna Quay said, “Manaakitanga is a core value of the city and there was perhaps no better demonstration of this than the pōhiri for AIMS international students.”

Quay added, “The Zespri AIMS Games is the biggest junior sporting tournament in Australasia, with more athletes than the Olympics, and it’s delivered by locals.

“A huge shoutout to the AIMS team, the code coordinators, the council staff, the thousands of volunteers across all of the sporting codes and the community for embracing this event.

“It’s a special event for our city and we can all be incredibly proud.”