07/06/2024
On World Environment Day, we are delighted to launch our Live Litter Map, showing the effects of plastic pollution across the Tidal Thames.
Data presented in the Live Litter Map has been generated by our citizen science volunteers through our Thames River Watch programme. This Volunteers Week, we want to say a huge thank you to all of the Volunteers involved in the project! 💙
🔹Over the last 10 years, we have counted 142,779 wet wipes, 97,830 plastic bottles, and 13,089 plastic cups. Our volunteers via surveys and clean-ups have removed more than 14000 bin bags of rubbish from the Tidal Thames.
🔹Our litter surveys categorise the waste we find, into sewage and non-sewage derived waste. We found that 44% of the plastic pollution on the Tidal Thames originates from sewage!
🔹Of the nearly 100K plastic bottles collected on the Thames foreshore, almost half were single-use water bottles. While the volume of plastic waste we’ve found is alarming, the positive impact of our collective efforts is extremely encouraging. Everybody has a role to play in tackling plastic litter. We would like a multi-stakeholder approach to action. Plastic manufacturers need to continue working to make their operations and processes more sustainable and reduce plastic waste. We need policymakers to turn the tables of the system, water companies to invest in sewerage infrastructure, and consumers to come on board and be mindful.
We couldn’t do this monitoring without the efforts of our dedicated volunteers, who have racked up an impressive 16000 volunteer hours across the project. Thank you for all that you do to improve the health of the Tidal Thames. 💦
Check our Live Litter Map here: https://ow.ly/ec1l50S9wtO
