Join the litter-busting collaboration to put a stop to river litter.
About the campaign
Treasure Your River is preventing river litter across the UK. The rivers at the heart of our cities flow to the sea, and take with them all the littARRR that is swept, dropped and drained into it. Did you know 80% of the litter in the sea flows out from river systems?
We're a huge UK-wide collaboration of litter-busting organisations looking for shipmates, volunteers, and people from across the UK who treasure their river to get involved. We’re aiming to remove 95 tonnes of litter from our rivers and prevent a further 90 tonnes from entering them in the first place.
ARRR you ready to climb aboard and treasure a river near you?
The issue
Each year
more than 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped in the sea (the equivalent of 2.2 million orcas and 11.7 million pirate ships). 80% of this plastic makes its way there from land through rivers and waterways.
UK rivers
contribute to the problem by ferrying litter towards the seven seas.
In the River Thames alone, an estimated 300 tonnes of litter make it's way out to sea each year.
Micro-plastic, macro-problem.
All rivers tested contain high amounts of microplastics (this includes the rivers Clyde, Trent, Severn, Wye, Conwy, and Exe).
During some tests, the River Mersey had a comparatively higher microplastic count than the Great Pacific Garbage patch.