Fancy a free kayak tour?
As long as you also pick up some trash, you can glide along rivers and canals in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan and Germany thanks to an idea born in Copenhagen.
Called Green Kayak, the people are equipped with green boats and equipped with a large bucket and two waste collectors.
They also receive maps of the waterways, indicating where protected birds or plants should be avoided.
After each tour, their litter is weighed and registered.
Germany is currently expanding the project which is based in Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig and will grow to include Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
It works. A stroll along Leipzig’s waterways reveals remarkably clean water – thanks to Green Kayak volunteers who have been paddling the city’s rivers and canals for some time now.
Birgit Paul from the Association for Economics for the Common Good Central Germany started the project in Leipzig in May and is happy with the progress so far.
“In the first two months, 116 rowers collected 206 kilograms of litter,” she says.
There were particularly rich returns when Germany hosted the European football tournament. Leipzig was one of the ten host cities, with fans from all over the world.
Volunteers mainly removed beer bottles, cans and plastic packaging from the water. “There was really a lot to do,” said Paul.
Leipzig municipal officials estimate that 20 to 25 tons of litter accumulates annually and must be disposed of in the area’s medium-sized bodies of water.
That amount could rise as city officials say litter has increased in recent years.
The Association for the Economy for the Common Good Central Germany plans to offer more boats in Dresden and Halle next year, and in Jena the following year – with all three cities looking forward to supporting the project.
But money is needed first. The association needs sponsors before it can place boats in Dresden, Halle, Jena and beyond.
“We want to station two boats in Halle and preferably two to four in Dresden,” says Paul.
Oke Carstensen, 33, co-founder of the Danish NGO Green Kayak, who started the project with a friend in 2017 after completing his master’s degree in Copenhagen, is satisfied with the progress in Leipzig
“Not bad at all for a completely new city. The high demand has really pleasantly surprised us,” he says.
Getting started in Oslo was much more difficult, he says. “The first few years we didn’t have that many people on the water there.”
Overall, Carstensen says, most locations collect about 20 tons of litter annually. In Berlin, around 1,900 kilos of litter were removed from the water in 2023. Most waste consists of consumer products such as plastic packaging or cigarette butts.
“But we have also recovered bicycles, e-scooters or even jewelry from the water,” he says. Items of clothing are also not uncommon.
The project aims to bring people from different social backgrounds together to use the kayaks for free, Carstensen says. “It is important to us that the offer is and remains free, so that everyone who wants to contribute to the environment can actively participate.”
After all, litter is caused by people and the environment makes no distinction between rich and poor.
Young people can also participate, says Paul. The Economy for the Common Good Central Germany is working with schools and a children’s restaurant in eastern Leipzig, “to introduce children to the subject of environmental protection in a simple way.”
