Active360 run first canal clean ups (Brentford Lock) in the first year of operation in 2011. We used SUPs and canoes and engaged local community groups, businesses and residents.

Nobody was doing water clean ups then from unpowered watercrafts. We can proudly say we were the first in London.

We went up a notch in 2016 when we set out to carry out a big spring clean across London’s waterways to engage people in the issue of plastic pollution. We pulled together ‘Paddle and Pick’ with Thames Estuary Partnership, Watertrek and Tideway to organise a series of clean ups over 10 days mostly in London, on the Thames and London canals. Paddle and Pick movement was followed up in 2017 by the Plastic Ocean Festival - an original idea of combining water clean ups with marine environmental films screened (mostly free or for nominal donation) around West London in community centres, auditoriums, bars and open air screens.

There are some good established projects to clean up beaches, canals and riverbanks around the world. We wanted to develop further our ideas for picking up plastic trash from paddleboards and canoes from the waterways on our doorstep.

We now run regular Paddle and Pick clean up sessions on the Tidal Thames leaving from our main site at Kew Bridge.

Clearing up plastic trash is a quick fix - we see the effects immediately and we feel better for it. Sadly, clean ups like these do nothing to reduce the underlying problem of disposable plastic packaging.  Bottled water, styrofoam food containers, plastic lined and capped coffee cups, bags, sweet wrappers, cigarette butts, chewing gum, drinking straws - are all part of our daily life. Encouraged by a packaging industry which turns out ever more inventive ways to wrap plastic around natural items such avocados, oranges and even potatoes. Although some plastic can be downcycled into other products much of it is not.  It ends up in landfill taking forever to degrade or worse in waterways and then oceans where it is damaging sea life and entering the food chain.

 Although clearing it up can seem futile and short lasting - it is definitely a good way to raise awareness of the plastic pollution and appreciate the problem and, through first hand experience of getting dirty - picking it up - start to look at how we can make changes to our lives and patterns of consumption to make a long lasting change.