A growing citizen science movement is helping to monitor river pollution by tracking litter across sites between Hammersmith and the Isle of Dogs.
The Thames 21 volunteer initiative ‘River Litter Detectives’ trains local residents to record waste on the foreshore – categorising litter into sewage-derived litter, plastic items, and other types of litter.
The scheme coincides with the charity recently launching their ‘Citizen Science Dashboard’ to help monitor the health of the river across London and the Thames Basin.
Thames 21 Communications Manager Liz Gyeke said: “We welcome everybody to come down to the foreshore to take care of their environment and to work with us to get people-powered data so we can use this data to make changes for the better.”
The new online dashboard currently holds more than 8,000 water quality samples and 2,000 riverfly surveys – making it one of the most complete citizen science tools in the UK.
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