A Rubbish Day Out

Over the weekend we donned dry suits and took a few Mad River Canoes to join around 50 other paddlers taking part in the ’Rubbish River Run’ clean up paddle on the River Usk in Wales.

Flowing through the Brecon Beacons National park, the river Usk boasts a number of classic UK whitewater sections popular with paddlers through the winter months. In light of this the park authority have put paddling firmly on their radar with the launch of Splash, an initiative aimed at bringing together groups who use the river and other local water ways recreationally.

The Rubbish Run was the brainchild of Gez Richards, the parks recreational development officer. With help from local outdoor centres, paddling clubs and Tidy Wales, he decided it was time to raise paddler’s awareness of our role as custodians of the river environment and of course as a keen paddler himself, to get some profile for paddling activity in the area whilst doing it.

Meeting up in the town of Brecon for a photo call and briefing, groups were allocated different sections of the river covering around 20 or so miles in total. Equipped with refuse bags, litter pickers and grappling hooks for any larger items, everyone went off in search of rubbish. Most debris found on stretches like this is a mix of plastic bags, litter wrappers and agricultural material, which gets caught up in the trees on either bank. Apart from the eyesore the real danger is for wildlife either eating or getting tangled up.

By the end of the day 54 full refuse sacks were collected and deposited at nominated roadside locations where the local refuse collectors had agreed to pick them.  Along with the bags we also found a motley collection of rusting bikes, old tyres, gas canisters  bits of drain pipe and a see-saw – quite a haul!

A big thanks to Gez for organising and all of the paddlers who turned out. If you are doing anything like this in your area let us know and we’ll give you a plug.