Angling Trust pledges to support Treasure Your River campaign

The Angling Trust has joined the Treasure Your River anti-littering campaign to combat litter around seven of the UK’s most famous rivers and their tributaries.

Organised by environmental charity Hubbub and supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation, the Treasure Your River campaign aims to collect 95 tonnes of litter and prevent a further 90 tonnes from entering the rivers Avon, Mersey, Severn, Thames, Trent, Forth and Taff.

To support the campaign, the Angling Trust will be installing 50 fishing line recycling bins at key locations near to five of the seven rivers, through its Anglers Against Litter initiative. Clubs and fisheries in the Avon, Mersey, Severn, Thames and Trent catchment areas who would like to be considered for a recycling bin can apply by emailing [email protected]

Anglers Against Litter will also be showcasing how recycled plastics are being used to benefit fishing by providing 12 fishing platforms made by Marmax Products from recycled materials to angling clubs who will use them to ensure safe, easy access to fishing for juniors and other newcomers to angling.

In addition to this, Anglers Against Litter will be working with fishing charity Get Hooked on Fishing, to support litter and environment awareness activities throughout the summer at their Northala Fields headquarters in Northolt, London.

Dr Emily Smith, Environment Manager at the Angling Trust, said:

“We are delighted to be supporting this campaign and encouraging anglers to treasure their rivers by recycling unwanted fishing line and taking part in litter picks.

“Treasure Your River builds on our own Take 5 campaign which encourages anglers to take five minutes at the end of every fishing trip to clean up any discarded litter around them to help protect the environment and prevent harm to wildlife.

“It also enables the Angling Trust to highlight how taking simple steps to recycle plastics and other materials can benefit fishing by providing fishing platforms from recycled materials for use by anglers.”

Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-founder of Hubbub, said:

“Having the support of the Angling Trust is a great opportunity for us to raise awareness within the angling community on how to keep our rivers free from plastic pollution. Treasure Your River is all about bringing people together to make an impact and make the connection between litter in our towns and cities and plastic in the oceans.

“The work Anglers Against Litter are doing to support the campaign is a fantastic example of the type of activity organisations, communities, businesses, charities or individuals can do to get behind the initiative.”

The 12 fishing platforms from Angling Trust have been made by Marmax Products of Stanley, near Durham, and are to be sited on waters used by:

• Bay Malton Angling Club,
• Salford Friendly Angling Society & Mersey Rivers Trust,
• Reading & District Angling Club,
• Access to Angling & Telford Angling Association,
• Nottingham & District Federation of Anglers,
• Sutton Coldfield Angling Society, and
• Coors Angling Club .

The Treasure Your River campaign will initially focus on prevention and clean-up activities on seven major cities in which the seven rivers flow – Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Nottingham, which between them are home to 1 in 6 of the UK population.

The ambition to unite over 80 organisations in the clean-up is gaining strong support from businesses, charities, community groups and river users. Partner organisations already on board include Angling Trust, Canal & River Trust, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Wales Tidy, Mersey Rivers Trust, Sustainable Hive and Thames21. The Rivers Trust are also partnering to independently measure the impact of the campaign, using technology including geotagging of litter reduction activities to create a map of the results of the nation’s collective efforts. This will be shared with partners including the Marine Conservation Society to build a wider map of UK litter.

To find out more and sign up to the campaign visit www.treasureyourriver.co.uk

The Angling Trust’s Take 5 campaign is run in partnership with the Environment Agency and supported by funding from fishing licence sales.

Fishing platforms made from recycled plastics by Marmax Products