About 40 people gathered at a section of the town belt between Braid Rd and Preston Cres to fill as many sacks as possible with rubbish.
The cleanup happened where the Town Belt Active Travel Trial is taking place, and is part of the 2026 Wild Dunedin Festival.
Keep Dunedin Beautiful president Mandy Mayhem said six tyres, three bags of rubbish, two sacks of glass bottles and one sack of aluminum cans were picked up by the volunteers between 10am and noon on Saturday.
She said a similar event was held just before the closure when they collected 20 bags of rubbish, so the smaller amount of trash this time was a welcome sight.
‘‘It’s a hypothesis of mine that people in cars throw rubbish out here.’’
However, the aim of the game had been to find no rubbish at all.
‘‘We’ve deliberately done this now to get data for the closure.’’
The Town Belt Active Travel Trial is due to finish on April 19.
They were unable to take the big-ticket items — a couch and chair set up in the bush near Maori Rd — and instead the council would arrange to collect them.
‘‘It’s a great day for it — I was well impressed with the numbers that turned out today.’’
Once all the rubbish was collected, Ms Mayhem and Keep Dunedin Beautiful co-ordinator Kelsey Porter had the task of taking everything from everyone’s sacks, and spreading out what they found.
The pair also sorted rubbish into different piles: one for glass, one for aluminum, and another for general waste.
