Author Archives: Emma B

Wandle Cleanup: January 2020, Merton

We had an excellent turn out on Sunday for our first cleanup of the year at North Road, Merton. 49 volunteers came along to lend a hand and we were delighted to welcome 20 new faces as well as plenty of familiar ones. We were treated to some unseasonably warm weather and some lovely sunshine – there has even been an incident of mild sunburn among the Wandle Trust staff!

With a heavily rubbish laden stretch of river to tackle, we got started about 400m downstream where a couple of fallen trees had helpfully trapped rubbish as it floated down towards the Thames.

Further upstream we found another one, only this rubbish collection seemed to be held together by rancid fat and lots of polystyrene balls – a frustrating and smelly floating fatberg-esque mix that was very difficult to clear! (Read more about the big problems fatbergs cause in our sewers here).

Looking much better after a valiant effort to extract lots of tiny bits of plastic

Meanwhile, an essential ‘terrestrial’ team litter picked the park, helped bag up all the rubbish that came out of the river and transported it back to the rubbish pile in wheelbarrows.

An particularly high number of plastic bottles were pulled out

After lunch we finished off the final stretch of river alongside the storm tanks and a stylish find meant that Polly left the event looking even cooler than when she arrived…

Over the course of the day volunteers found a typically weird and interesting mix of items:

So, what did we find?

8 tyres, 7 footballs, 7 number plates , 3 toys, 2 traffic cones, 2 handbags, 2 statues, 2 chairs, 2 duvets, 2 coconuts, 2 hula hoops, a driving licence, a scooter, a kettle, a butter knife, LOADS of plastic bottles and lots of other general rubbish.

A special thank you to everyone who helped unload in the morning and pack up the van at the end of the event, Dave for supervising the Event Tent, Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funder, Thames Water.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:

David, Tony, Emma, Tom, Kamile, Andzelika, James, Jamie, Tom, Stewart, Derek, Guy, Aaron, Martin, Andy, David, Tony, Chris, Mark, Neil, David, Will, Trudi, Matthew, Cindy, Fiona, Sam, Roderick, Kyle, Ed, Alex, Will, Sally, James, Kay, Lisa, K, M, Sanna, Wally, David, Sheila, Charles, Phil, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Eamonn & Kim.

Wandle Cleanup: December 2019

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At our December cleanup we were joined on a very windy Sunday by 38 volunteers for some festive fun pulling all sorts of rubbish and unusual items out of the river. This month we were at Ravensbury Terrace in the borough of Wandsworth: this site has changed a lot since we were last here and now has some significant development taking place. Luckily, we were still able to access the river, though some creative wheelbarrowing was required through some of the single file spots!

The in-river team spread out across the channel

Single file access along the edge of the building site

Ravensbury Terrace is one of our shorter cleanup stretches (about 100m) and has no easy access for the public. Nevertheless, we found plenty of rubbish!

A delightful selection of toys were extracted from the river. Parents with young children might even wonder if attending a cleanup in December would be an excellent way to save money on Christmas shopping? (Disclaimer: The Wandle Trust do not endorse the gifting of river rubbish!).

Volunteers found the time to dig this out of its watery grave

The clock was ticking as rain was forecast for the afternoon so volunteers made the most of the dry weather and continued litter picking in the river and on the banks until 1:30pm when we stopped for a late lunch and decided to call it a day.

Volunteers were ready to apprehend anyone caught littering! If you look closely you will see that leeches also seem to be big fans of law enforcement.

So, what did we find?

Five tyres, two metal poles, a selection of pots and pans, a laptop, a sealed steak, a football, some handcuffs, a Robin Hood CD, a clock, a boiler cover, a bed frame, a set of car carpets, some plastic guttering, 4 plastic toys, items of clothing and a whole host of other rubbish.

A special thank you to everyone who helped unload in the morning and pack up the van at the end of the event, Dave for supervising the Event Tent, Wandsworth Council for organising collection of all the rubbish, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funder, Thames Water.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:

Dave, Katharine, Louis, L, Karen, Rob, Charles, Wally, Eamonn, Bev, Matthew, Mark, Tony, Aaron,
Zead, Suzanne, Anita, J, Kim, Thomas, Margaret, Rob, Tom, Mark, Freddie, William, Sue, Gary, Sheila, Andy, Martin, Nick, Luke, Philip, E, Per, Derek & Caitlin.

Wandle Cleanup: November 2019, Wandsworth

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This month’s cleanup had a bumper turn out of 60 volunteers! We met on Sunday morning in King George’s Park, Wandsworth to focus our efforts on a stretch between two bridges. We were treated to lovely sunny weather and an unexpected delivery of 8 huge pumpkin pies! These definitely helped re-energise the team at lunch break and we managed to cover a whopping 350m of river and an even greater distance along the banks. Here are some of the highlights…

Volunteers spread out across the river to hunt for rubbish

As well as volunteers in the river in waders, we have teams of people helping to pull rubbish out onto the banks, bag it up and wheel barrow it back to the collection point, there are also litter pickers patrolling the banks and paths. So if you fancy getting involved there are always plenty of different roles to fill.

A typically grim selection of waste from the river

Volunteers were egged on by this sign that we were doing the right thing…

Seasonal treats provided a lunchtime sugar boost. A big thank you to Wally and his daughter for making the pies (and growing the pumpkin!) and to the Richmond University Baking Society for their delicious cup-cakes and loaf.

Heroic efforts were made to free this mattress from the river bed. Volunteers floated it downstream quite a distance before we were able to find a good bit of bank to lift it out onto.

Jess watches on as the mattress emerges.

The bank-side team provided essential man (and woman) power, to help haul it out of the river.

So, what did we find?

A chair, a drone, 10 bank cards, a stereo, two mattresses, a tyre, a bike wheel, two metal poles, numerous carpets/rugs, clothing, plastic sheets, a toy frog, tent poles, curtain rails and the usual collection of general litter and plastic waste.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:

Sheila, Martin, Guy, Phil , Nick, Charles, Maddie, Jamie, Will, James, Hanna, Ken, Zead, Bryan, Wayne, Sabrina, Martina, Sabrina, Adan, Isabella, Margaret, Margaret, Hailey, Tamsin, Moshe, Rob, Jane, Sue, Zhugan, Aaron, J, Julia, Simon, Willliam, Suzanne, Alex, Jessica, Per, Felicity, Thomas, Peree, Paul, Andy, Soycelher, D, Will, Bev, Aamon, Matthew, Mikaela, Bianca, Felix, Deborah, Penny, Henry, Louis, Caitlin, Dave, Anna & Tom.

Wandle Cleanup: October 2019: Merton

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The unrelenting rain threatened to call things off on Sunday, when we met for October’s cleanup at Waterside Way, in Merton. The river level started a little higher than normal, while the forecast looked pretty miserable, and due to the flashy nature of the river we were worried that any further heavy rain might mean that the cleanup would need to be cancelled on health and safety grounds. However, thankfully the weather forecast was not 100% accurate and we just had a dreary and drizzly day to contend with: nothing our stalwart volunteers can’t handle!

We had an excellent turnout of 51 volunteers, some wading whilst others hauled the rubbish onto the banks, ferried it back to the collection point in wheel barrows and litter picked the banks.

The weather didn’t get the memo that it was meant to be a Nice Day for A White Wedding……

There was more rubbish in the river than we anticipated and we cleared approximately 4 tonnes from a stretch less than 100m long.

After two years of repeated efforts and an hour long battle on Sunday, this particularly pesky shopping trolley was excavated from its home in the silt, only to be joined shortly afterwards by another one.

If this skateboard had been structurally sound, we would have all been delighted by a fabulous display of Polly’s skills! Sadly this one had seen better days, so we’ll just have to wait until a better quality one is pulled from the river.

Jess found a way to keep people focused on the work…

So what did we find?

Two tyres, two shopping trolleys, a mattress, a desk fan, numerous scaffold poles, a tent, a mini skateboard, a toy gun, mdf boards, loads of carpet, clothing and the usual haul of plastic bottles and wrappers.

A special thank you to everyone who helped pack up the van at the end of the event, Dave for supervising the Event Tent, Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment, and to our funders, the National Lottery Community Fund.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Bev, Autem, Anna, Lindsay, Margo, Anna, James, Iker, Simon, William, Dave, Mickey, Wayne, Martin, Guy, India, Tony, Steve, Rob , Paul, Elizabeth, Brian, Peter, Simon, Derek, Aaron, Will, Phil, Chris, Deborah, Andy, J, Teddy, Alex, Elijah, Margaret, Jacob, Kayla, Sheila, Phil, Zena, Willow, Julia, Mick, Jamie, NJ, Kathryn, Paula, Sophie and Charles.