Grant allows London children to fish for plastics

United Kingdom – London charity the Hubbub Foundation has received a grant of over £77 000 to take children on educational ‘plastic fishing trips’ along the River Thames on a boat made from 99% recycled plastic.

The City Bridge Trust grant will enable 55 plastic fishing trips for children from more than 25 London schools to mainly clear plastic waste from the docks around the capital’s Canary Wharf. Recyclable material collected will be used to build more boats, which will be deployed across the UK.

‘Poly-Mer’ is the name of the first plastic fishing boat commissioned by Hubbub Foundation, the charity organising the river trips. It is a 12-seater boat made out of ‘Plaswood’, a material based on 80 000 discarded plastic bottles.

The boat builder is Mark Edwards, who previously built the Queen’s barge, ‘Gloriana’.

The programme is meant to ‘connect young people with the environment’ so that future generations will embrace sustainable practices and ultimately stop littering.

Hubbub Foundation developed the eco-initiative together with Canary Wharf College, a local school that wanted to help solve the city’s growing marine litter problem.