This project is waging war on the plastic that poisons our rivers

In recent years there has been increasing awareness regarding the amount of plastic finding its way into our oceans. But there is also the problem of plastic waste being found in our river systems, which in turn can eventually find its way into the sea. 

One way of tackling this growing issue is a pioneering new project set up by the EU, called LIVES: Litter Free Rivers and Streams, that tackles the problem of plastic in cross-border rivers and streams, through joint action. Since 2018 they have collected the staggering sum of 260 tons of waste. 

The total budget of LIVES is 1.5 million euros, of which 49% is financed by the European cohesion policy. The remaining 51% comes from the ten or so partners involved, including water-management organisations and universities. 

One group of volunteers visits the banks of the river Meuse in Borgharen in the Netherlands every week. Although the river basin looks beautiful and peaceful from a distance, there is cause for concern beneath the surface. Their main aim is to stop the waste that accumulates on the banks of this waterway which runs through the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. 

Mapping the areas with the most waste is one of the key objectives of LIVES work, and to do this they have developed a method, which can be replicated elsewhere, in any river. Twice a year, a section of the shoreline is combed and every item found is identified, most of which are plastic, or plastic related, and then logged. The recorded data is then shared by the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion countries along with partners associated with the project. 109 different types of waste have been identified so far. 

The removal of plastics from the banks is only the tip of the iceberg, as many of them end up mixed