Long Eaton United Football Club have joined forces with us to tackle the problem of litter on the Erewash Canal, helping to protect wildlife and improve the canal for visitors.
Long Eaton United’s under 11s boys’ team, nicknamed ‘Team Black’, swapped their football boots for canoe paddles and litter pickers as they supported a clean-up of the water and towpath.
Starting at the education centre at Trent Lock, the boys worked their way along the canal picking litter from the towpath and hedgerows as well as taking to canoes to remove items from the water.
In just a few hours the team removed four large bags of crisp packets, bottles, cans and other rubbish. As well as helping to improve their local canal the boys also used it as an opportunity to raise sponsorship for new kit.
The clean-up coincides with the launch of the ‘Plastics Challenge’ which encourages people to carry out short litter picks at their local canal to prevent plastic rubbish damaging vital waterside habitats.
Carol Burrell, community wellbeing coordinator, said:
“Litter on the canal doesn’t just look bad, it can be really harmful to wildlife and threatens some of our best loved species.
“As a charity we need help from communities to keep our precious historic waterways alive and it was fantastic to see the boys getting out there and really making a difference.
“Their hard work has made the canal look a lot better for boaters and helped to protect precious local wildlife. Hopefully their efforts will inspire others to get involved as our research shows that if everyone who visits one of our canals and rivers picks up just one piece of plastic and takes it home, they’d be clean within a year.”
Romaine Graham, team manager at Long Eaton United, said: “The canal is such an important part of Long Eaton and we wanted to do our bit to make it nicer for everyone living and working in the town. It was a great activity and we had a fun and productive day, with both the kids and adults learning a lot.”
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