Local football team unite with us to give litter the boot

Long Eaton United’s under 11s boys’ team, nicknamed ‘Team Black’, swapped their football boots for canoe paddles and litter pickers as they supported us in a clean-up of the water and towpath.

Improving their local canal

Starting at our education centre at Trent Lock, the boys worked their way along the canal picking litter from the towpath and hedgerows as well as taking to our canoes to remove items from the water.

In just a few hours the team removed four large bags of crisp packets, bottles, cans and other rubbish. As well as helping to improve their local canal the boys also used it as an opportunity to raise sponsorship for new kit.

The clean-up coincides with the launch of our ‘Plastics Challenge’ which encourages people to carry out short litter picks at their local canal to prevent plastic rubbish damaging vital waterside habitats.

Threats to wildlife

Carol Burrell, our community wellbeing coordinator, said: “Litter on the canal doesn’t just look bad, it can be really harmful to wildlife and threatens some of our best loved species.

“As a charity we need help from communities to keep our precious historic waterways alive and it was fantastic to see the boys getting out there and really making a difference. Their hard work has made the canal look a lot better for boaters and helped to protect precious local wildlife. Hopefully their efforts will inspire others to get involved as our research shows that if everyone who visits one of our canals and rivers picks up just one piece of plastic and takes it home, they'd be clean within a year.”

Romaine Graham, team manager at Long Eaton United, said: “The canal is such an important part of Long Eaton and we wanted to do our bit to make it nicer for everyone living and working in the town. It was a great activity and we had a fun and productive day, with both the kids and adults learning a lot.”