The 2018 River Clean Up Sonning to Shiplake Saw Records Tumble!

•  45 Amazing Volunteers,  with 20 local children.  Groups helping included Shiplake College pupils and staff, Shiplake Vikings Rowing Club and the Shiplake Outloars. 
• 18 Small Boats
• About 30 bags of rubbish and other bulky items
• 25 + Degrees weather

This year the River Clean Up – Sonning to Shiplake saw a record turnout of volunteers and a massive haul of rubbish from the river banks. 

With a fleet of eighteen small boats, over thirty bags of rubbish were filled and put in the EA refuse barge by Shiplake Lock. 

Joined by enthusiastic local families and individuals with a love of the river, the volunteers worked hard in the boiling hot weather. 

This year, in addition to local residents, some pupils and staff from Shiplake College helped join the effort and the College lent their lawn again for the logistics and rubbish gathering.

The 2018 River Clean Up found (apart from some of the usual un-mentionable things) a ring still in its box! 

We noticed that plastic bags have reduced significantly, so we can only assume that the new legislation is beginning to work. Hopefully the government will usher in more quickly the banning of plastic bottles and plastic food packaging (which sinks to the river bed).

Organiser, Guy Fisher said: “Thanks so much to everyone who came to help this year. I’ll definitely plan another in 2019 and I urge other river lovers to organise clean up’s along their stretch of the river.“

Outloars – Gary, Lee, Doug unable to make the first weekend and Stuart Milne (the latter for a consecutive week) kindly finished off the reach the week after.

http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/river/125443/volunteers-clear-river-of-rubbish.html

https://www.henleyherald.com/2018/05/11/river-clean-up-sonning-to-shiplake-saw-records-tmble/

GALLERY