Verco’s Bath office helps Bristol Avon Rivers Trust clean the Pigeonhouse Stream

On Friday 25th April, our Bath team spent the day volunteering with a local river protection charity, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART).

BART’s aim is to help communities throughout the Bristol Avon catchment area conserve, improve and appreciate their rivers. They do this by offering education and advice, and by running practical restoration workdays like the one our team took part in.

We met them at Bristol's Pigeonhouse Stream, where we donned waders and waterproofs, grabbed litter pickers and went to work. Our task was to clear the litter that had built up over six months, both in the stream and beside it.

As the stream runs through a residential area, there was a variety of litter blocking the waterways and reducing clean habitats for wildlife. We covered just under a kilometre, removing shopping trolleys, bikes and scooters, the front half of a motorbike, a fridge, fly-tipped clothing, building site waste and more food wrappers than we could count. Half an hour was spent trying to dislodge discarded tubing from where it disrupted the riverbed. It took more than six people and a lot of patience, but eventually the tube came free. It turned out to be about eighteen feet long! Without it there, the river flows more easily.

This whole experience was a salutary reminder of how litter can impact river ecosystems. It’s important to dispose of rubbish and old appliances properly, not just because doing so is the polite thing to do, but because throwing waste into the river impacts the health of wildlife communities such as plants and fish, reduces the natural flows of water and – we can confirm – makes the whole place smell terrible. Walking the few extra feet to a bin is worth it. If you don’t believe us, try one of these practical days!

We finished our session pleased with the difference we had made but sobered by the piles of waste we had collected. Our friendly hosts from BART gave us lots of advice and knowledge to consider going forward.

You can find out more about BART here.