Copenhagen: kayaking free of charge while collecting waste

Kayaking for free in Copenhagen while collecting waste. That's what this Dane is offering with GreenKayak.   Brut Nature went on board with him.

Transcript

00:00Right now we are in the center of Copenhagen looking for trash in the water.

00:07There are only two rules to use the kayak.

00:32Firstly you need to spend your time picking up trash while kayaking.

00:36And secondly share your experience on the social media.

00:41So those are the rules so you don't pay anything.

00:44The concept is that it is totally for free.

00:54When you walk the streets here and you're looking at the water you see clean water.

00:59You see that it's really nice and as you can see here behind me people are swimming in

01:05the water in Copenhagen but when you get in the kayak and you start looking down you

01:12will see the trash and you will see tiny bits of plastic and you will see plastic bags.

01:20So there is a lot.

01:22So using the green kayak is actually also opening the eyes of the volunteers who are

01:30using the kayaks.

01:44These ones are actually a little bit hard to see because they are so transparent.

01:50But with the kayak you go very close to everything and that's how you discover that there is

01:57trash.

01:58This is a classic example of what we see all the time.

02:02This is the top of the cigarette package.

02:07They always end up in the water.

02:09The special thing about plastic is that when it's in the water it breaks down but it breaks

02:16down into smaller pieces that you know if you have one bottle and it breaks into two

02:22pieces then you actually have two pieces of plastic and then it just goes on and on.

02:29So even though it breaks down it doesn't mean that it's disappearing.

02:34We are doing something to change the mind, the mindset of people to think more about

02:43if they see trash in nature, if they see trash on the street, you know they should pick it

02:48up because in the end it will end up in the ocean and we can't help that plastic in the

02:57ocean is a growing problem.

02:59We will see more and more and the ones to pay are the species living in the water, fish

03:08and whales and cigarette butts.

03:19Even the tiny bits here are very important.

03:22This may look as prey to a duck.

03:38When they are in the kayak they are really scouting for trash and it's a treasure hunt

03:44for them and sometimes they come back before the time is up, they empty the bucket, they

03:50go for more and it's great.

03:54What a positive thing and what a great story to tell that the kayak was fully booked every

04:02day and tons of trash was ending up not in the water but right here in the bucket.

04:10You know the first year one kayak picked up three tons of trash just in Copenhagen.

04:16Now we have collected more than 13 tons of trash with the kayaks.

04:32So as you see there is quite a lot, plastics, six packs, cans, take away stuff and the usual

04:49plastic bag.

04:51About three kilos, that's good.