‘It’s not glamorous’: the volunteers counting flushed wet wipes on the banks of the Thames

The Guardian reports the following. ENC is republishing it as an attributed briefing, not as independently confirmed fact. If this item is false or incomplete, the responsibility sits with The Guardian, which released it. A Thames21 charity citizen science project helps track plastic pollution in the capital’s river On a pale-blue Sunday morning on the foreshore of the River Thames, 40 people are searching for what others have tried to lose. Dotted across a 250-metre stretch under Hammersmith Bridge, they are combing through layers of silt, seashells and dirty driftwood to find one of the river’s most stubborn problems: wet wipes. “People come and walk here and it looks just like mud, at a distance,” says the organiser, Dr Felicity Rhodes. “And then you get closer in and see.” Continue reading... Original link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/13/volunteers-flushed-plastic-wet-wipes-river-thames