You Can Go Kayaking in Europe for Free If You Pick up the Trash
All over the world, our oceans, lakes and rivers are full of garbage. There is a pile of plastic trash swirling in the Pacific right now, and much of that is the result of our own littering and improper disposal of trash. Several waterways in Europe suffer from the same clogging problem, which led the EU to ban single-use plastics like cutlery and bags back in March.
To draw attention to water pollution problem, Greenkayak , an environmental group from Denmark, allows travelers free ride on kayaks for a number of European rivers and lakes – on the condition that they collect any debris that they find along the way, and it is far less shocking than seems.
Greenkayaker gets the essentials: a life jacket, paddle, scavenger, trash bin and two hours of free kayaking. You don’t need to be an experienced kayaker or an avid swimmer, as you won’t need to be in direct physical contact with the water (thankfully).
Since the program began in April 2017, Greenkayakers have collected approximately 24,000 pounds of trash – including plastic bags, bottles, lighters, shoes and bags – from Europe’s waterways.
“In Denmark, people hang out on the canals, eat pizza and unfortunately see garbage floating by,” Tobias Weber-Andersen, one of the co-founders of Greenkayak, told USA Today about the program’s origins. “You can’t take your shirt off and jump into it, but you can sit in GreenKayak and make an impact.”
The program currently provides kayaks in cities in Germany, Ireland, Norway and Denmark. If you would like to use a free kayak, tour the city from the river and contribute to solving the problem of water pollution, you can register for a while on the Greenkayak website . And if you don’t like this idea, remember: there is garbage everywhere, and paying for a kayak in a cleaner place is a pointless exercise.