Beach Clean-Up on Tetiaroa: My Experience in Paradise with a Problem

This is a memory from September 2001, during the old hotel era on Tetiaroa. It does not describe present-day waste handling or conservation arrangements.

September 2001 was my fifth visit to Tetiaroa. I had become friendly with a member of the Brando family whom I call Tama here. We fished, spent time at the bar and talked about life on the atoll. On this visit, the subject became something considerably less picturesque than the lagoon: rubbish on the shore.

Paradise… With Trash?

I asked Tama about the amount of litter I kept seeing. He told me that much of it came in from the open sea, carried towards the reef and shore. Whatever the precise origin of each item, the result was visible on beaches that looked remote from the places where the waste had been discarded.

He also described problems around fishing camps on Motu Aie, including rubbish left behind and fishing he considered unauthorised. Those were his explanations. I could see the waste myself, but I was not in a position to establish the legal status of every catch or activity.

A Visit to Motu Aie

Tama took me by motorboat to Motu Aie. After landing and crossing the small island, we found a camp with two old freezers and a considerable amount of rubbish. The freezers were being used with ice to hold fish, according to his explanation. I photographed the scene.

It upset me because I loved the atoll. The fishing conversations and questions of access were one part of the story; the abandoned waste was something I did not need to debate before finding it distressing.

Tama interfered with the equipment and took some fishing gear away. That is part of what I remember, but I cannot establish what authority he had to do so. It is not an approach I am recommending to anyone visiting a fishing camp.

Volunteering for a Clean-Up

Back at the bar, I offered to help with a clean-up. Tama seemed surprised that a guest would want to spend a day doing that. I explained that I loved the place and also generated waste that someone had to handle. He offered bags and a boat ride to Rimatuu the following day.

There was no fixed collection time; he would return to check on me. I was told the gathered rubbish would be burned near the airstrip along with the hotel’s waste. That describes the arrangement as I understood it in 2001. It was not an ideal outcome, and I cannot claim it was the only possible solution.

The Sad Reality of Cleaning Up

On Rimatuu, the first blue bag filled quickly. Bottles, jerry cans, old footwear and plastic bags were spread along the shore. Item by item, things that might have been used only briefly elsewhere had become part of this beach.

I filled all fifteen bags within a stretch of about 100 metres. Seeing them lined up was satisfying for a moment, then discouraging: so much work, so little of the shore covered. I could remove what was in front of me, but I could not stop the next load from arriving.

Tama returned in a larger boat and saw the row of blue bags on the sand. He shook his head. The scale of the problem was rather difficult to miss when it was gathered together like that.

He thanked me and said no guest had done that before. I was glad to have helped.

That is what stayed with me: the rubbish was not an abstract environmental concern. I had held it, bagged it and carried it across a place I loved.

The Memory and the Wider Conservation Work

Tetiaroa is an atoll in French Polynesia, north of Tahiti. My visits belong to an earlier period of its history, before the present resort. I would not use these photographs or memories as an assessment of the atoll today.

For more recent context, Tetiaroa Society describes its conservation work. Its 2020 impact report recorded organised beach clean-up days removing more than 500 kilograms of rubbish. That later work is distinct from my small effort in 2001, but shows why the issue needs sustained attention.

For more about the place behind this story, read my main guide to Tetiaroa. It covers the atoll’s history, its connection with Marlon Brando and visiting today.

If you join a clean-up, work with the people responsible for the place and their disposal arrangements. Removing litter is useful; deciding where it goes afterwards is part of the job too.

Photographs are from my Tetiaroa collection and illustrate the island setting rather than the clean-up itself. They have been enlarged and enhanced with AI assistance; some fine details may have been reconstructed.