The River Thames and the Plastic Problem

The Thames has always been at the centre of London throughout its evolution, growth and numerous transformations with the river often being compared to a major artery as it delivers life to this manmade metropolis. In fact, this 350 kilometre ribbon of water holds a surprising amount of wildlife right from its source to the sea as it winds through counties such as Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Surrey and finally, London itself. 125 species of fish live in this famous river alongside kingfishers, water voles, seals, dolphins and even the rare whale which enters the mouth of the estuary. Yet British species are no longer the only sightings city goers could spot on their commute to work.

A recent study has unveiled that the Thames actually houses some of the highest levels of microplastic of any river in the world, beating The Danube and The Rhine in Europe to this shameful title. Scientists have discovered that in some stretches of the river, an estimated 94,000 microplastics per second flow downstream, rushing out towards the sea where they will be dispersed among the waves and begin their trans-world voyage. These tiny plastics are often sparkly squares of glitter, the broken-down fragments of old pieces of food packaging or microbeads contained within cosmetics such as face scrubs which enter the river after washing down our bathroom plug holes. Many of these bits of plastic have been found inside living crabs alongside tiny pieces of balloons and carrier bags as our native species confuse floating rubbish for a lookalike tasty treat. Our fish have not escaped the tide of plastic either with one-third of the fish in the Thames containing microfibres. Microfibres are tiny pieces of plastic which come off our often synthetic clothing in the washing machine and then travel either via water or air into our waterways. If these mini bits of plastic don’t sound too concerning, then maybe they will appear more troublesome when you realise that these objects are the perfect home for tiny toxins such as chemicals which can cause changes in genetics and weaken the immune systems of living beings, us included.

Yet microplastics aren’t the only things clogging up London’s beating heart; large items of waste are also found strewn across the riverbanks such as water bottles and wet wipes. In fact, the average adult Londoner buys three plastic bottles per week, which equates to a mighty 175 single-use water bottles every year. Meanwhile, 11 billion wet wipes are used in the UK every year, with many of these washed down toilets and accidentally entering river systems through sewage overflow pipes. The Thames actually sees so many used wet wipes lining its shores that many have renamed these areas as ‘wet wipe reefs’. As you can see from these facts, only two plastic products can cause an enormous amount of pollution in our natural environment, let alone when the other thousands of plastic items we use in our daily lives are added on top. To worsen the situation, the millions of single-use gloves and masks used daily during the current Coronavirus pandemic are making life for our waterways even harder than before.

Whilst this information is fairly depressing and gives us a negative outlook in our battle against plastic, it actually shows that no matter where you live or how far from the sea you are, you can still help the planet and join in with our purge on plastic. Several decades ago, the Thames was highly polluted with chemicals such as trace metals which were flowing out towards the sea from factories, however this aspect of river pollution has been largely cleared up due to successful environmental campaigns. This ecological success story can give us hope that plastic will follow the same trajectory and become an outdated problem of the past by the end of the century.

So if you live in a city, many of which are built on the banks of some of our most famous rivers, what can you do to help reduce the number of plastic items cluttering up our riverbanks and eventually our sea beds? Maybe you feel that living in a city makes it harder to really grasp how bad the plastic problem is in our oceans but one way to solve this is to do a plastic audit in your own home. Why not spend a week counting and logging all the pieces of plastic you throw away in a week, the total amount may surprise you and once you consider every household in your row is throwing away the same and even all the households in your city, you will get a good idea of why plastic is piling up in our environment. If you take on this challenge, you can log your results with Everyday Plastic who have so far discovered that the average house throws out 132 pieces of plastic rubbish per week, equating to 909,633 pieces a single year! That’s almost a million pieces of plastic for just one house! Once you have spent a week exposing your plastic use, why not take some easy steps to cut down. Everyday Plastic found that 68% of the waste we have comes from food, with fruit and vegetables and snacks being the worst offenders, so why not switch up your shop.

In fact, living in a city gives you great power to set an example of the type of consumers you want to see in the world. With so many hundreds of shops to choose from, why not opt for one of the new zero-waste shops to buy staples such as pasta, tea, shampoo and even wine for your Friday night in. You can also show businesses exactly what changes you want them to make by opting out of plastic straws, bringing your own bamboo cup to the coffee shop or refilling your metal water bottle instead of buying a whole new plastic one. You can use the Refill app to find your closest free water station or if there’s not one near you, why not take action to get a local water point installed in your street. With cities having such a large population, the people really do have power and in this case, it can be used to help encourage sustainable shops and restaurants whilst also campaigning for new eco-friendly measures such as reverse vending machines which recycle our unwanted waste. For example, in San Francisco, the city decided to ban Styrofoam products such as takeaway coffee cups and boxes to make the city a cleaner, more inviting place. With so many millions of individuals sharing the streets with you, it’s almost certain that a chunk of them will share your desire to help the planet so setting up a community litter pick group, a plastic-free campaign or an upcycle group should be no problem. These groups might already exist if you look in the right places. Thames Plastic is an up and running art project which turns collected river waste into inspiring art pieces which aims to help Londoners learn about and engage with the plastic problem whilst also visualising the extent of the waste piling up around the city.

Finally, no matter where you are, whether that is a bustling city street, a sunny park or a quiet canal, you can always pick up litter and prevent it being whisked away in our beautiful natural environment. The Thames Project encourages city goers to collect rubbish, take a photo of it and tag its location on their app to help collect data about which parts of the river are most polluted and therefore need the greatest action. The project has even joined up with sports clubs so you can cycle, walk, run, kayak, row, swim or paddleboard your way around London’s rivers, canals and lakes and help make the city that little bit greener. Cities around the world hold so much promise for tackling our plastic problem as they are filled with millions of unique, creative, bright-minded individuals who are already creating some of our most ingenious solutions for saving the planet, no matter how far from the coast they live.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood