Two robot pirate ships set sail in London’s Docklands today to mark the launch of the UK’s largest ever collaborative push to prevent and reduce the amount of litter entering our waterways, and subsequently the ocean. The Treasure Your River campaign aims to remove 95 tonnes of litter and prevent a further 90 tonnes from entering seven of the UK’s vital river systems that are home to a wide array of wildlife. That’s the equivalent in weight of 740 grey seals or 1,423 harbour seals, both commonly seen in the Thames estuary or 42 baby minke whales similar to ‘Minnie’ rescued from the Thames this week.
Treasure Your River will tackle litter in the rivers Avon, Forth, Mersey, Severn, Taff, Thames and Trent and their tributaries. The campaign is being run by environmental charity Hubbub and supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation, and will initially focus on prevention and clean-up activities on seven major cities based on these rivers – Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Nottingham, which between them are home to 1 in 6 of the UK population.
The ambition to unite over 80 organisations in the clean-up is gaining strong support from businesses, charities, community groups and river users. Partner organisations already on board include Angling Trust, Canal & River Trust, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Wales Tidy, Mersey Rivers Trust, Sustainable Hive and Thames21. The Rivers Trust are also partnering to independently measure the impact of the campaign, using technology including geotagging of litter reduction activities to create a map of the results of the nation’s collective efforts. This will be shared with partners including the Marine Conservation Society to build a wider map of UK litter.
Source: Water Active
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