Every week, Jim, Frances and Monique give their time to clear rubbish on their local towpath. Now, we’re inviting people like you to lend a hand on your local canal.
Volunteer Jim Flynn litter-picks on his stretch of the Grand Union Canal every Saturday morning
At first glance, the Grand Union Canal in Perivale, West London, is clean and well-maintained. The towpath is even, trees are lush and green, and the water is calm and still. But it still takes constant work to remove the food wrappers and drink cans strewn along the bank, discarded plastic bobbing in the water, and carrier bags tangled in the reeds.
“It’s mostly bottles and cans, of course,” says Frances, who, like Jim, volunteers for Friends of Grand Union Canal. “But we find food, clothes, shoes, microwaves – you name it, we find it.”
Sadly, it’s a similar story across our network. Litter remains a major challenge on our canal, with an estimated 590,000 items strewn along towpaths at any one time. That’s equivalent to nearly 6,000 bin bags of litter that need clearing up. It’s estimated that we spend over £4 million a year managing litter and fly-tipping.
Litter not only spoils the places people enjoy but threatens wildlife. For Frances, it’s personal. She’s lived in Perivale since the 1960s, and remembers a cleaner, tidier canal.
Fly tipping around Brent Reservoir, a Site of Special Scientific Interest
“I used to walk along the canal with my children,” she says. “It was always such a lovely place, with plenty of ducks and swans on the water. But over the years, it’s gradually deteriorated, with more and more litter piling up. To be honest, for a time, I was ashamed to say I lived in Perivale.”
One day, after a chance encounter on the towpath, Frances decided to roll up her sleeves and take action. “I just happened to spot Jim and another of our volunteers, Monique, picking away,” she says. “So, I just wandered over, introduced myself and asked if I could help them.”
Ever since, the trio have been patrolling the 300-metre stretch between Piggery Bridge and Ealing Road Bridge every Saturday morning, trusty litter pickers in hand, clearing away the detritus that slowly builds up over the week. “We start around eight thirty and collect about ten bags of rubbish between us,” says Jim. “I love the environment where we live, and I’m a ‘keep-it-tidy’ man. I just don’t like the mess people leave behind.”
Jim, Frances and Monique are not alone. Across the country people are already giving up their time to pick up litter from towpaths. Our volunteers spend over 200,000 hours every year helping our team to tackle litter, from regular clean-ups and community litter picks to testing new and innovative approaches.
We’ve also been exploring new ways to remove litter and stop it spreading through our waterways. These include litter boats, bubble barriers that use bubbles pumped out from the riverbed to trap waste without blocking fish or boat navigation, and the innovative WasteShark, a remote controlled, mini catamaran drone which scoops up to 50kg of rubbish per trip.
But tackling litter across 2,000 miles of waterways is a huge challenge, and there is always more to do. That’s why, thanks to Postcode Lottery players, we’re launching The Little Canal Litter Pick on 6 October, asking people to lend a hand on their local canal.
We estimate 2.6 million people pick canal litter every year. Now we’re asking you to join them
Add where you’ve cleared up your canal to our interactive litter pick map and you’ll help us build a better picture of where people are taking action, while showing the difference we can make when those small actions add up.
We know from the success of the Friends of Grand Union Canal that when people look after their own patch of canal, it really does help reduce the amount of litter. Compared to 3 years ago the towpaths are now much cleaner with very little rubbish.
Anyone can get involved in a litter pick, you don’t have to be a regular volunteer to make a difference. Just one litter pick can have a positive impact. You'll be joining an incredible community of people who care enough to roll up their sleeves and help protect the canals they love. Why not do a litter pick on your local stretch of canal?
A family litter pick on Worcester & Birmingham Canal
“It’s about instilling a little pride in your local area and your community,” says Jim. Every bottle, wrapper and can removed is one less piece of litter polluting our waterways and means more funds can be invested in vital works to keep our canal heritage alive.
If, like Frances, Jim and Monique, there’s a stretch of towpath near you that you’d like to see improved, why not join the Little Canal Litter Pick and add your litter picks to the map? Every litter pick counts, and together we can show the difference we can make across our waterways.
