Friday morning saw the collecting of the 20 metre skip from Redham Mead gate where it has been for the last fortnight by Pindens sponsored by Medway Norse, it was a bit muddy for a vehicle of that size but the driver Steve did a sterling job in loading it onto the lorry.
This clean-up managed to remove 0.94 of a ton of plastic from the foreshore, add that to the 1.96 from the two previous clean-ups and that makes as near as makes no difference 3 tons not now in the Thames.
A DROP IN THE OCEAN, UNFORTUNATELY !!!
According to Greenpeace of the 260 million tons of plastic produced each year, about 10% ends up in the ocean and 70% sinks to the bottom damaging life even on the seabed. Actually I'm surprised it's only 10%, but that still means 26,000,000 tons are getting into the sea.
By my calculations the plastic we removed is 00001% of that 26 million tons.
My thanks as ever to Colinda Le Gall and Tony Codling of Medway Norse for the funding. The P.L.A. Tanya, Molly and Gill, RSPB staff, Will, Ruby, Ben and Joe and last but not least Belinda Lamb of the Medway and Swale Partnership.
Thanks guys I couldn't have done it without your help (and money) and let's not forget the volunteers who made the whole thing possible, too numerous to mention of course.
Apologies though, I'm already thinking about 2019 so I shall be pestering you all again in a few months.