Volunteers in canoes, kayaks and paddleboards clear rubbish from Severn

VOLUNTEERS ON such as paddleboards, kayaks and canoes have cleared rubbish from the Severn in Shrewsbury.

Over 30 volunteers took part in clearing out piles of rubbish, Janet Friend reports.

Their efforts even included pulling furniture, car tyres and traffic cones out of the river that unthinking people had thrown in. Picture by Shrewsbury Vegans.

This clean-up was organised by Shrewsbury Vegans and their co-founder Chris Houlston explained:

"The paddleboards meant we could grab the rubbish that's often inaccessible from the riverbank."

He is a regular paddleboarder and seeing so much rubbish in the river around the town centre he organised the effort to clean it up.

Otherwise the rubbish, if left, would then be washed downstream having a 'a really disastrous impact on the Severn', he told. Especially of course all the plastic washed downstream.

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