The plague of plastic was tackled at a special event at Ellesmere Port’s National Waterways Museum.

The heritage destination saw the final stop in a national Plastic Patrol campaign led by adventurer and environmentalist Lizzie Carr aka Lizzie Outside.

Lizzie recently became the first woman in history to solo paddle board across the English Channel while last year she was also the first person to paddle board the 400-mile length of England’s inland waterways solo and unsupported to highlight the problem of plastic pollution.

The Canal and River Trust, the charity which looks after many of the nation’s canals, hosted the clean up to enable people to help look after their local waterway by either a paddle board or from the towpath.

Lizzie said: “Plastic pollution is the single biggest environmental catastrophe affecting our planet today. And the worst part is, we’re responsible.

Ellesmere Port's boat museum hosted a paddle boarding event to help rid the canal of the plague of plastic with adventurer and environmentalist Lizzie Carr
Ellesmere Port's boat museum hosted a paddle boarding event to help rid the canal of the plague of plastic with adventurer and environmentalist Lizzie Carr

“Plastic is an entirely man made material so every single piece you see littering the planet is a direct result of our actions.”

She said her series of Plastic Patrol clean ups across the country, including eight on Canal and River Trust waterways, offered plenty of opportunity for people to get involved and show support with the chance to try paddle boarding completely free in return for being asked to collect some of the rubbish encountered.

“During my stand up paddle board adventures I found that a lot of the plastic I came across was caught up in reeds away from the towpath so getting on the water and cleaning up by paddle board means accessing pockets of the waterways that might otherwise remain untouched,” she explained.

Jason Watts from the Canal and River Trust’s volunteering team said Plastic Patrol was ‘a great way to encourage people to get outside and enjoy their local waterway while highlighting the problem of plastic pollution’ with waterway rubbish costing the trust around £1m a year.

A pile of plastic and junk was pulled from the waterway on the day.