Our research suggests around half a million individual pieces of litter are present across our canal and river network at any one time. This equates to 60 tonnes, or nearly 6,000 bin bags full of litter.
An estimated 39 million items of litter would accumulate on our towpaths and in canal waters each year if we didn’t take action. It is one of our most visible and environmentaly damaging problems.
The extent of the litter problem threatens native wildlife, public enjoyment of both towpath and waterway activities, and the health of our ecosystems. As a charity, it costs us around £4 million a year to manage.
We conducted a study on the extent of litter on our waterways between October 2024 to December 2025. This was to understand:
- Where litter is most prevalent along the network (land and water)
- What types of litter there are (including material types)
- What the source(s) of litter are
- How our efforts to remove litter are impacting the problem (through volunteer, staff and waterway-user litter picks)
Below are some of the key findings.
Where are the worst places and areas for litter pollution?
Urban, built-up areas, like towns and cities, experience significantly higher levels of litter than in rural spaces. The study showed that urban areas had an average litter count of 23 items per 100m of towpath, but this was found to be up to 25 times higher in some areas.
Towpaths had larger litter counts than the canal waters themselves - although the amount of waterborne rubbish may have been underestimated due to only being able to log the litter that was visible on the surface, not below.
What is the most common type of litter?
Despite UK laws banning some single use plastics, plastic waste made up most of the litter discarded (40%). Metal was the next biggest material category, at around 17%.
In terms of items, the most commonly collected were: plastic wrappers (e.g sweets and crisp packets), cigarette butts, 'other' plastic items (such as food containers), alcoholic drinks cans, and plastic drinks bottles.
Where does the litter come from?
Despite our best efforts, we can’t definitively prove the sources of litter, but we can draw some conclusions based on the types of litter we found.
We found that litter comes from a wide variety of sources, including from users of our canal and river network, but also from adjacent land. There was also litter from anti-social behaviour, which included alcohol-related rubbish, dropped cigarette butts and dog poo. Fly-tipping also plays a major part.
We can also assume that natural causes, such as wind blowing litter onto our network, contribute to the problem - although it's difficult to know to what extent.
What difference are community and group litter picks making?
Our volunteers contribute around 200,000+ hours each year to litter picking, alongside our operational teams and partner groups.
In addition to this study, (which focused on volunteer litter data), our monthly online waterway engagement monitor (WEM) estimates that around 2.6 million towpath users have also litter picked on our waterways in a 12-month period.
As a Trust, we are also undertaking small-scale interventions, such as targeted projects like Restoring the Soar and innovative solutions like WasteSharks and litter boats.
What happens to the litter if it's not collected?
Every year, around 700,000 items of litter leave our waterways through 17 exit points that directly or indirectly lead to the sea.
With over half (57%) of litter found in the water to be plastic, this suggests that roughly 400,000 items of plastic are swept from our canals and rivers into the sea on a yearly basis.
The environmental impact of plastic pollution is signficiant; plastic items can take hundreds of years to degrade, which means the vast amounts ending up in the world's oceans are causing long-lasting damage to ecocystems, wildlife, our health and the climate.
How can I help with the litter problem?
We need your support in helping make our canals litter-free places to be.
Take part in the Little Canal Litter Pick and log your efforts on our interactive map, so we can continue help us build a clearer picture of the action being taken, which will help support our plans to protect canals for everyone to enjoy.
About the study
This was the most comprehensive study of litter ever undertaken across the Canal & River Trust network.
The research was conducted between October 2024 and December 2025 and combined multiple sources of evidence to build a robust picture of litter on our waterways and towpaths.
The study brought together data from:
- volunteer litter surveys conducted during both low and high visitor seasons across urban and rural areas
- professionally commissioned litter surveys to fill geographical gaps in coverage
- surveys of litter passing through major waterway exit points
- independent waste composition analysis of litter samples collected across the network
In total, the research included 215 surveys and data collection exercises, covering 391km of waterways and towpaths, with around 46,000 items of individual litter items recorded. It is not practical to survey every mile of canal and river; therefore, litter counts were standardised to a common measure of litter per 100 metres. The results were then scaled up using the total length of the Trust's waterways and towpaths.
The research was made possible by players of the Postcode Lottery.
Methodology for estimating litter across the network
