Saturday 21st September 2019
Report written by Anwen Greenaway
On #GGSUPerSaturday 3 Oxford Goodgym runners teamed up with the Oxford Stand-Up Paddleboard Club and Plastic Patrol for a river clean up in Oxford. It was the perfect Community Mission for World Clean Up Day, and glorious to be out on the river in the autumn sunshine.
Meeting in Old Marston the paddleboarders took to the River Cherwell, paddling downstream and fishing for litter and dodging punts and kayaks along the way. We found a car tyre, a bike, lots of tennis balls, cans, bottles, crisp packets, and assorted other rubbish. A couple of hours of paddling amassed a big litter haul.
Sticking to dry land, Bethan plogged the river bank and cycle path. It is now pristine and we hope it stays that way!
Meeting back at the Victoria Arms we sorted our litter and logged it in the Plastic Patrol App. The App has been developed with the University of Nottingham to help build a global picture of what litter is being found around the world. It is hoped that the data can be used to hold people to account on their littering.
After all the hard work we definitely deserved the cake kindly provided by Bethan.
With thanks to West Oxford Community Centre and Rose Hill Community Centre for the loan of their litter pickers, and to Street Scene for coming out to collect the litter.