Coco's Cantina staff and volunteers picked up nearly 90kgs of trash from K Road on Saturday. Photo: Milly Athy-Timmins
A street clean-up, a few pizzas and a couple of proseccos isn't a bad way to celebrate your 15th birthday. And that's exactly what Coco's Cantina - a staple of Auckland's Karangahape Road - decided to do over the weekend.
On Saturday, about 30 staff and volunteers trekked K Road and surrounding streets, collecting nearly 90kg of rubbish, including 39kg of landfill material, 26.4kg of glass, 12.2kg of plastic, 9.4kg of cans and 1.9kg of bottle caps.
It might sound like an unconventional way to mark a milestone birthday, but owner Renee Coulter says it just felt right this year.
K'Road's Italian staple Coco's Cantina turns 15
"I just didn't wanna roll out the '15 years ago' menu or do half-price Negronis all month - it didn't feel like what the community needed...
"People are a bit skint and already feeling a bit like this year is piling on top of us, so what's a way we can do something fun together, that doesn't have to cost a lot of money?
"The sense I got is, what people actually want is connection ... this year has been hard for hospo and businesses, and hard for people just wanting to make ends meet. It didn't feel right to go out and flag-wave like everything is amazing."
Coco's Cantina collaborated on the cleanup with Earth Action Trust, an Auckland-based charitable organisation focused on waste reduction and elimination. Photo: Milly Athy-Timmins
Coulter organised the clean-up event with Earth Action Trust, an Auckland-based charity focused on waste reduction and elimination. Together, they washed, sorted, recycled and diverted trash from along the road and all the way to the cemetery on Symonds Street.
"Earth Action Trust were amazing, they did everything ... they brought the gloves, the tongs, they brought the hi-vis, worked out the safe route, and weighed all the trash."
The cleanup crew collected, sorted, washed and recycled the trash. Photo: Milly Athy-Timmins
The Coco's crew - long-time regulars and new whānau - found some interesting material during the clean-up - mostly cigarette butts, nitrous oxide canisters, V cans and Big Ben pie wrappers.
"We also found six needles, which I didn't think was too bad, and I found 20 bucks and gave it away - that felt good...
"The street, the community, our neighbours have all been a big part of Coco's journey.
Celebrating the end of a hard day's work with pizza and prosecco. Photo: Earth Action Trust
"Our community is so distinct and doing anything together, it just becomes more fun. It's like when you mow your own lawns, that's boring, but mow your lawns with a mate who's raking with the music on, and somebody else putting the coffee on, and it's halfway to a party.
"Being out on the street together, it was just more fun. We came back, had some pizza, some prosecco, we chatted and got to know the people we didn't know that well. It was awesome, it was a great event."