• last year
An environmental activist has highlighted the shocking amount of sewage and plastic waste in a UK river - including vapes.

The green influencer has found sewage, plastic and even discarded e-cigarettes in parts of the River Calder in West Yorkshire.

Elliot Barr, 30, a full-time fuel safety officer and volunteer environmental activist said: "Our rivers are under immense pressure from a number of different sources.

"There are multiple sources that contaminate our precious rivers, from normal people littering in day-to-day life, waste dumping directly into the rivers.

"For example, flytipping, agricultural runoff and raw sewage dumping into the rivers."

A video shows Elliot along the River Calder in Ossett and Wakefield city centre and on the Horbury Weir.

Elliot, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: "Disposable E-cigarettes are a menace.

''The lithium-ion batteries destabilise and leach huge amounts of highly toxic chemicals into the ecosystem.

"And seemingly the younger generation are the main culprits of irresponsible disposal.

''I have even seen electric scooters being thrown into the rivers.

"Raw sewage dumping is a huge issue because of the release of unfiltered waste which leaves the environment to the mercy of faeces, urine, wipes, fats/oils, and detergents."

Elliot spends most of his spare time clearing up rubbish that washes up on the River Calder with the voluntary environmental organisation he founded.

He said: "I am walking embankments of rivers removing what I can and trying to highlight the impact we are having directly from the river so it cannot be denied.

"I do this so that more people can see what is happening because not everyone gets the chance to see these areas."

He regularly posts his findings on social media to bring to light the scale of the problem facing the country's waterways.

Elliot describes himself as an environmental activist and believes that it is everybody's duty to clean up the planet in any way they can.

He said: "Even the smallest actions have a ripple effect, simply putting waste in the correct bin prevents it from entering nature.

"If 1 million people stopped dropping litter, it is 1 million less items in nature. Simple."

Elliot has been cleaning up the rivers for the past five years and only recently started to post online.

His work is done to help the planet and he hopes to inspire more people to do their bit.

Elliot said: "I hope through my work we can start to make real change both by actively removing waste from the rivers and through our social media outlets where we hope to show the UK population what we all must do to make positive changes."

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00 The smell this morning on the river Calder is absolutely foul.
00:04 The water treatment facility has just opened its floodgates
00:07 and it's emptying its raw sewage directly into the river.
00:10 And it's not particularly high this morning, which is a real shame.
00:14 I would encourage anybody to come down to one of these outlets
00:16 and smell what we're actually putting into the rivers.
00:19 It's absolutely disgusting.
00:21 In 2001, I believe, there was about 1.3 million hours
00:25 of raw sewage dumping into the rivers, which...
00:29 Look how beautiful it is.
00:32 What a shame.
00:33 Hey, let me know what you think.
00:35 What do you think we should be doing?
00:37 Go on, let me know. Peace.
00:40 I've just come down from up there and across the river
00:43 and I've just discovered this, which illustrates my point
00:47 exactly about the damage within our rivers.
00:53 Just look at this embankment.
00:56 It is just a pile of litter and rubbish
01:02 and sanitary towels and cups and yoghurt pots.
01:08 Carpet.
01:11 It's just absolutely foul.
01:17 This will take years upon years to fix.
01:22 And it just carries on.
01:24 It's literally an embankment of river roots and litter
01:29 and sediment and soil.
01:31 And that is all.
01:32 Look at this.
01:35 I wouldn't have thought that I was in England right now
01:41 because of how much we care for the planet
01:43 and our carbon neutrality plans and et cetera, et cetera.
01:46 And, ooh, look at how fancy we are as a nation.
01:49 Yeah, look at how fancy we are.
01:52 We abuse it in the name of profit.
01:55 It's simple as that.
01:57 Simple as that.
01:59 Tires there, look, making up the river floor.
02:02 Trees, absolutely strewn with waste.
02:05 Disgusting.
02:06 Absolutely foul.
02:10 So let me know what you think in the comments
02:12 because I'm, yeah, shocked, to say the least.
02:18 Peace.
02:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:33 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:36 (upbeat music)

Recommended