Press release, embargoed until 00.01am, 28th August 2019
BIRMINGHAM CROWNED WINNER OF THE UK’S FIRST ‘PLASTIC FISHING’ COMPETITION Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country awarded with its own plastic fishing boat to help tackle plastic pollution in local canal and river network Birmingham has today been crowned winner of the UK’s first ‘plastic fishing’ competition by environmental charity, Hubbub. Following a UK-wide tour, the Poly Roger – a 12-seater punt made from 99% recycled plastic – has been awarded to the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country after it beat organisations in three other cities to win the boat, built to help clean up plastic pollution in UK waterways. The Poly Roger’s plastic fishing tour started in April, visiting Manchester, Scotland, Bristol and Birmingham, where Hubbub partnered with local organisations and volunteers in each location who had nominated their area to join the tour as part of a competition in partnership with the Daily Mirror. The tour saw residents being taken out on plastic fishing trips to raise awareness of the growing levels of plastic pollution in UK waterways and encourage more people to recycle their used plastic. The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country was chosen as the winner after 138 volunteers took part in collecting 28 bags of litter in just six days. In the coming months the organisation will use the Poly Roger to offer plastic fishing as part of its ‘Wild Work Days’ initiative which encourages businesses to give something back to the local area. The Trust will use the boat to help it measure biodiversity in the region and to educate schools, community groups and members of the public further on the issue. The plastic fishing initiative has come from Hubbub and has been built using funds collected from Starbucks’ 5p charge on drinks purchased in a paper cup across its 950 stores nationwide. The Poly Roger is only the third boat of its kind in the world and the first to launch outside of London. The craftsman tasked with building the boat was expert boat-builder Mark Edwards MBE, who also built the Queen’s barge ‘Gloriana’. The design is based on a traditional punt, but it’s made from the most modern of materials - Plaswood, a hardwearing alternative to wood that is made entirely from recycled single-use plastic - and it’s powered by a rechargeable electric motor making it the most sustainable of boats. During its tour of the UK, the Poly Roger made 55 trips and took 599 volunteers plastic fishing. Overall, 2,233 plastic bottles and 192 bags of general litter were collected from the UKs waterways.