Aboard kayaks, nets in hand, young people from Brussels remove floating waste from the canal. A friendly activity, but which will not be enough to make this waterway clean without large-scale measures from the public authorities.
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It all started with a second-hand kayak. After noticing floating waste in the canal, Pieter Elsen, a young Brussels resident, decides to tackle the problem himself. He buys a kayak, a net, and goes fishing. The idea appealed and, one thing led to another, several people joined him. The Canal It Up association was born.
Several times a week in summer and when the weather permits in winter, Pieter and his team welcome groups for kayak outings. The association collected 7,800 kilos of waste. “But there are far too many, even for the port of Brussels, which cleans the canal with boats,” explains the activist. “We must go further. We must prevent waste from entering the water.”
So these group sessions serve to raise awareness among residents of the Belgian capital. “We want to reach as many people as possible, the goal is for each participant to become a bit of an ambassador for the waterways,” says Pieter Elsen. Canal It Up has also designed a floating barrier to capture waste and is promoting the introduction of a general deposit on packaging in Belgium. An issue that does not only concern the city of Brussels, since, each year, 8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the oceans via waterways.
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