A child’s walkie-talkie, an actual message in a bottle, a plastic topiary hedge and a trainer are just some of the unexpected finds our volunteers, on paddleboards, have taken out of the Regent’s Canal since January.
By Nicola Baird, Islington Boat Club’s paddleboard coach
A child’s walkie-talkie, an actual message in a bottle, a plastic topiary hedge and a trainer are just some of the unexpected finds our volunteers, on paddleboards, have taken out of the Regent’s Canal since January.
Thanks to funding from Active Thames, which is supporting our Paddle Angel project to help people with addictions break the cycle by offering on the water alternatives, such as paddleboarding, Islington Boat Club has been able to run regular litter picks.
By early May we had removed 56 trugs of litter from the canal. Only a small amount is recyclable.
Nearly 80 people have helped us clean up at our two or three times a month sessions. Sometimes we’ve teamed up with the De Beauvoir litter pickers to make sure a bigger stretch of the canal is given some love. We also ran one session as part of Paddle UK’s Big Paddle Clean Up 2025.
“It’s been brilliant to know so many people want to keep City Road Basin and Regent’s Canal cleaner. People feel real pain seeing how much litter keeps turning up, and they really worry about how it effects the wildlife. But everyone gets such satisfaction from being able to help by litter picking,” said Nicola Baird, Islington Boat Club’s paddleboard coach who has been co-ordinating the sessions.
If you would like to join our litter picks please book here.
We usually go out on Saturday afternoon. We can also organise litter picking sessions for corporate and community groups.
