Rotary Club Organising Rubbish River Sweep
Rotary clubs from Henley will join others local clubs to help sweep the River Thames of plastic and other rubbish on Sunday 17 October. They will work on boats and the towpath between Sonning and Shiplake locks starting at 10 am.
The event is part of the clubs’ commitment to the End Plastic Soup campaign, which seeks to stop plastic from polluting our canals and rivers and being washed out to sea. It is estimated that the UK will have created more than 4.9 million tons of plastic waste this year alone. Disposal is a major problem — only a tiny percentage of plastic is recycled — but it is quite clear that it does not being in our rivers and seas.
“Cleaning up locally is just a start,” said Kate Hodges of Rotary District 1090. “But Rotary clubs and the End Plastic Soup initiative are committed to ending plastic waste by 2050.”
Protecting the environment is one of the key focus areas of Rotary International (RI), the 1.2 million-strong parent organisation of global Rotary clubs. RI has worked to eradicate polio worldwide for 35 years and is within a whisker of achieving its goal. Why not end plastic waste too?
For further information, contact: Kate Hodges kate.rotary@gmail.com
