What evil lurks in Leiden’s canals? The Plastic Spotter team are on the case

Since 2019, a fearless team of Leiden University students and other local residents have been dedicated to removing and studying the random stuff that winds up in the city’s waterways. These are just three of the unusual items Plastic Spotter’s team has retrieved from Leiden’s canals during their weekly boating treks. ‘We collect this data to show how much trash is in the canals, where it’s coming from, and who the polluters are.’ Hiemstra’s PhD thesis was inspired by a coot he encountered during one of Plastic Spotter’s treks. Plenty of progress in just a few years The team, who began patrolling in 2018, yanked an estimated 7,000 plastic cups out of its waterways following the city’s Koningsdag celebration last year. They’ve also co- Several reasons why According to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund published last year, the average person eats, swallows, or breathes in an average of 5 grams worth of tiny bits of plastic every week due to increasing amounts of pollution in water, air, and food.