‘It’s not glamorous’: the volunteers counting flushed wet wipes on the banks of the Thames
A Thames21 charity citizen science project helps track plastic pollution in the capital’s river On a pale-blue Sunday morning on the foreshore of the River Thames, 40 people are searching for what others have tried to lose. Dotted across a 250-metre stretch under Hammersmith Bridge, they are combing through layers of silt, seashells and dirty driftwood to find one of the river’s most stubborn problems: wet wipes. “People come and walk here and it looks just like mud, at a distance,” says the org
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A Thames21 charity citizen science project helps track plastic pollution in the capital’s river
On a pale-blue Sunday morning on the foreshore of the River Thames, 40 people are searching for what others have tried to lose. Dotted across a 250-metre stretch under Hammersmith Bridge, they are combing through layers of silt, seashells and dirty driftwood to find one of the river’s most stubborn problems: wet wipes.
“People come and walk here and it looks just like mud, at a distance,” says the organiser, Dr Felicity Rhodes. “And then you get closer in and see.”
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About this article
- Length
- 97 words · 1 min read
- Published
- October 13, 2026
- Byline
- Matthew Pearce
- Source
- The Guardian