Trashformers: Waders of the Waterways

As I entered Pitshanger Park, I can see a group of people and a person wearing a red T-shirt was in my sights. It had to be Kash I thought and yes it is. She was talking to Kathy from LAGER Can who organized this mission along with CURB(Clean Up the River Brent)

19 volunteers, 2 hours, 30 heavy bags of rubbish, six tyres and, of course, a limebike - LAGER Can Twitter

Suit up

After signing up, Ben asked Kash and me whether we are interested in Wading and asked for our shoe sizes. Soon we started suiting up and Sevan and Florian reached the spot and joined us. We had to wear waders, water proof gloves, carry a stick to test the depths of water, a litter picker, and a carry bag to collect the waste.

Disclaimer

Careful not to end up over your head in dirty river water

Ben then gave us a long health and safety walkthrough of what the mission would be and what we needed to be aware of. While the waders are picking the litter from the Brent River, the expertise among the group will deal with removing of dangerous giant Hogweeds. If you were in contact with one, it will burn your skin, and apparently, it will last even for years.

Jump into the action

While most of us walked through the water, a volunteer used a different transport option to go to the other side of the bank. See the pics and find out

So as we all get ready to enter into the Brent River, three LAGER Can volunteers brought a lime bike. We are not going to deal with cigarette butts this time, I thought to myself. Soon we carefully slide into the river from the banks.

Poo bags, Tyres, and others

As we started treading into the waters, we can feel the coldness in our feet and soon in our bums. It was a bit difficult initially to find the rubbish even though the water was clear. Few minutes in the water was not clear anymore as we muddied up the river but finding rubbish became easier. Kash went deep left and started litter-picking as if she was inland. Sevan, Florian, and I were carefully putting our steps forwards and walking against the pressure of water and do not make ourselves wet.

After rolling out the tyre I found to the banks,

These tyres are a pain, we took out 200+ tyres in a day last time, said a volunteer

Cold water Hot sun

Chilling in water is not something few of us envisioned when signing up for this task, but on a bright sunny day, this felt relaxing although we are digging out rubbish under the dirty water. Felt quite like an adventure than a mission. During the finishing stages, we positioned ourselves on the edges of the bank and took out rubbish that was stuck on the tree branches.

Let me lead you back to safety - Ben

and escorted us out of the brent river as the time hit 11:40 am. We then took off our waders, washed our hands, and bid goodbyes. Ben said they were going to wrap things up soon after we left.

Thanks to @CanLager and @BrentPollution for the pics embedded in this report