This week I’ve been out on the Thames with the Port of London Authority, and litter picking on Grays Beach with Thames 21.  Both outings were to collect waste material, particularly plastics, to use in the sculpture I’m making for the Cleaner Thames campaign.  On Tuesday I went out on the ‘Driftwood III’, up and down the river looking in the driftwood collectors and picking out bits of plastic to use.  As well as the obvious plastic bottles, there were lots of cigarette lighters, tennis balls, flip flops and other random objects.  On the beach this morning there was a great turn-out of volunteers and lots of litter was collected.  One of the big problems in the river is the amount of micro-plastics that are ingested by fish and other wildlife.  Looking closely there were lots of little plastic tubes from cotton buds and other tiny bits of plastic littered along the beach.