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Paddleboarding litter-pickers clean up river

Andy Giddings
BBC News, West Midlands
Shrewsbury Vegans Seven people on paddleboards and small inflatable boats paddling on a river, with a collection of objects piled up on them, including two red traffic conesShrewsbury Vegans
The litter-pickers used paddleboards, canoes and kayaks to get to the rubbish

Volunteers on paddleboards, kayaks, and canoes have cleared dozens of bags of rubbish from the River Severn in Shrewsbury.

About 30 took part and their haul included traffic cones, car tyres, plastic chairs and lots of fishing gear.

The clean up on Sunday was organised by Shrewsbury Vegans and their co-founder Chris Houlston said: "The paddleboards meant we could grab the rubbish that's often inaccessible from the riverbank."

He is a regular paddleboarder and said he saw "lots of rubbish" appearing in the river around the town centre.

The rubbish is then washed downstream and he said it was having "a really disastrous impact on the Severn, especially all the plastic".

The day was arranged as part of Paddle UK's nationwide Big Paddle Clean Up and the group said it planned to do another later in the year.

Shrewsbury Vegans A group of people standing beside a sign which reads Welcome to Shrewsbury and a large pile of rubbish, including a chair, two traffic cones, a plank of wood, a tyre and plastic boxes containing other wasteShrewsbury Vegans
Another litter pick will be held later in the year
Shrewsbury Vegans A large pile of rubbish, including a chair, two traffic cones, a plank of wood, a tyre and plastic boxes containing other wasteShrewsbury Vegans
The paddleboards allowed the group to collect rubbish that is inaccessible from the riverbank

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