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Thousands of plastic bottles, drinks cans and glass bottles have been cleared from a canal and towpath in a litter pick.

50 volunteers from Bridgwater came together on Saturday (September 29) and cleared 1,220 plastic bottles, 1,085 drinks cans and 240 glass bottles from Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and towpath.

The event was organised by a community action group called Rage Against Rubbish with the support of The West Country Branch of the Inland Waterway Association (IWA) and the YMCA.

Sarah Johnstone from Rage Against Rubbish, said: "Each month we organise a litterpick along the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and compared to our September event we think we collected about 30 per cent more litter.

(Image: Rage Against Rubbish/Sarah Johnstone)

"Other items we collected included a child's scooter, a bike, a road sign, four road cones, a car wheel, a pallet, two cushions, two over shelves, two black bags of clothes and handbags and about 40kg of other waste such as plastic bags, crisp packets, dog poo bags, paper and card."

She said it was an "impressive haul of rubbish" and paid tribute to volunteers, YMCA and the members from The West Country Branch of the IWA.

Rage Against Rubbish was originally formed by Dan, his eight-year-old son Riley, Damien Vass and Jason Winter, all kayakers, after the group were fed up with seeing vast amounts of rubbish and discarded items in the waterway.

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The team organises canal cleaning events once a month along the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal.

On a previous litter pick, a hi-fi system, shopping trolley, scooter were some of the items found.

Sarah said: "We wouldn't be able to host our litter picks without the ongoing support of The West Country Branch of the IWA and the YMCA.

"The IWA volunteers run a flat work boat with on-board rubbish, storage containers. The team then sort the rubbish and recycle it for us.

"The YMCA George Williams Centre kindly offered us the use of their double kayaks and Canadian canoes and life jackets for people to use free of charge.

"Our next litter picking event is on Saturday, October 27 and we are always calling for more volunteers to come along and give us a helping hand. People can find out more about our next event on our Facebook page."

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