Students urged to take direct action and stop plastic getting into our oceans

Students are being urged to volunteer for a clean-up of Leicester’s canal and river to stop plastic polluting our oceans and killing wildlife. 

Up to 50 students are wanted to remove plastics from the riverbanks and nearby land around the city’s River Soar and Grand Union Canal to prevent it even getting into the waterways. 

This will be the second year that DMU has organised a river clean-up to coincide with COP climate talks with 65 bags of plastics and 24 bulky items being collected last year. 

The event is being planned in partnership with Leicester City Council and the Canal and River Trust for Wednesday, 13 November, as part of DMU’s COP 29 Sustainability Campus Collective programme to coincide with world leaders meeting for climate action talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

It is estimated that 575,000 items of plastic get into Britain’s rivers and canals every year. More than 80 per cent of the plastic polluting our seas, oceans, and beaches and killing wildlife comes from being discarded on land. 

In world terms, it is estimated that 12 million metric tonnes every year enters our oceans and the cumulative total is now more than 171 trillion pieces of plastic in the seas around the world. 

Dr Mark Charlton, the Associate Director of DMU’s SDG Impact Hub, said; “Last year’s event was a big success and students took direct action to make a difference to their environment. 

“Every piece of plastic collected from the waterways, riverbanks or land will not be polluting our oceans or harming wildlife. I would urge students to volunteer and make a real difference.” 

The clean-up will take part in the Abbey Meadows area of Leicester and transport will be provided. After the clean-up from 10am-1pm, students will be invited back to DMU for pizza and given a certificate to mark their efforts. 

Any students interested in taking part should email dmusdg16@dmu.ac.uk and put ‘Stop Plastics’ in the subject field.