‘Idiots' was the first word popping into Papamoa local Ken Wright's mind after discovering a stash of empty beer bottles on Papamoa Beach this afternoon.

The bottles had been discarded into a fire that had been lit last night on the stretch of beach opposite Alexander Pl, says Ken.

The broken, discarded beer bottles discovered by Papamoa local Ken Wright earlier this afternoon. Photo: Ken Wright

'It's literally on the path down the slope leading to the beach,” says Ken. 'So if you're a kid running you could have gone straight through it.

'Why is it that idiots think if you throw your beer bottles into a beach fire they will simply evaporate, this sort of thing happens too often on Papamoa Beach.”

Even more annoyingly for Ken, a friend who was helping him to clean up the mess sliced one of his finger on a broken beer bottle.

This is s about the third or fourth time Ken's discovered beer bottles that have been thrown into a fire on the beach.

While not wanting to cast aspersions, he suspects the bottles were most likely discarded by locals, he says.

'We are experiencing very high tides at the moment and this mess of bottles and broken glass would be swept away overnight, only to resurface in some tourist foot.

'Having spent a whole holiday as a child with a gash in my foot from a broken bottle in a sand pool I can tell you it's no fun.”

He adds Papamoa locals discover 'all kinds of things” following fires lit on the beach.

A few weeks ago Ken found something that looked like an umbrella or a gazebo that had got blown into a fire.

'And instead of cleaning up all the metal they just left it, thinking it would melt? I really just don't know what goes through some peoples' heads at times.”