Why I Pick up Litter

Some months ago in a blog post I mentioned that I try and take a plastic bag with me while river sampling and spend a few minutes before leaving picking up any litter. Link  A few people have commented about this and asked precisely why.  So here is why:

So all that litter on the road finds its way into ditches and streams eventually ending up in estuaries and  the sea.  So picking up litter really is a positive action, and next time you walk on the beach, take home some  of that rubbish that has been washed up.  Sir David Attenborough agrees:




For more information vist http://www.plasticoceans.net/

Nick Gray

Discarded larger cans and sewage fungus



Sewage fungus forms macroscopic growths of bacteria

and fungus that coat the entire substrate of rivers

affected by severe organic pollution

 I was doubly interested in a recent newspaper article this month concerning a company owned by Heineken UK.  It was recently fined for polluting a tributary of the River Leadon in Herefordshire. Leachate from apple waste had accidently found its way into the stream during site work causing a sewage fungus outbreak and also a fish kill.  The reason why this story caught my interest is that for many years I worked on sewage fungus here in Ireland, but over the years it has become a very rare site here in Ireland and also I suspect in England…which is a good thing unless it  happens  to be your research area!  The microbial ecology of sewage fungus is quite fascinating being largely comprised of filamentous heterotrophic bacteria, although there are three filamentous fungi which occasionally form part of the community.  The other reason why the story interested me was that I was sampling a section of river today and the bank was covered with discarded cans of Heineken larger, obviously a remnant of some summer party.  So I have made a new resolution and that is always to pack one plastic sack and a litter picker along with my sampling gear and make sure that at every site I visit I clear up any bank side litter before I leave and try to bring a full sack of litter/rubbish back each trip and recycle what I can.