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What do you do with rubbish from your weed hatch?


NickF

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I am just back from a week on the canals which involved the Tame Valley Canal,  Walsall Canal and The Wednesbury Old Canal as well as the BCN main line. I really enjoyed the trip through Birmingham and predictably we went down the weedhatch a lot of times, we just had a bin liner on the stern deck for the rubbish. I was surprised and dissapopinted to see several heaps of rubbish on the tow path right by the canal which were clearly what others had pulled out of their weed hatches.  

 

Personally I think it is really sad that boaters are littering the canals like this, how can we possible complain about rubbish in the canals when we don't help to clear it up ourselves.

 

I suppose some would have the opinion that it is rubbish, it is not their rubbish and so we can leave it as rubbish.

 

Which do you do?

Edited by NickF
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I can’t imagine throwing it back in, or leaving it on the towpath. It’s a horrible habit. 
 

We collected a 9’ hessian backed shag pile rug on our prop yesterday between the 2 Poolstock Locks. It took me 1  exhausting hour to get it off. 
It is free for anyone who wishes to collect it from the CRT bins at the top of the Wigan flight. CCA58407-BAAB-441D-B823-0F49B36F5327.jpeg.5bcc9de1029c21cb8cf60b6ca384f582.jpeg

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I, like you, have just finished the BCN and have seen more of the weed hatch than the wife. 😁

 

As I cleared the prop I separated the weed from the plastic\clothing that had been picked up and keep it in a black bag on the roof to be emptied at a refuse point.

 

Like yourself I am constantly disappointed with those who clear the prop & leave the detritus handy to be kicked back into the canal to ensnare another boater.

 

However having walked the Walsall canal from Walsall town arm to the new canal to assess my planned journey I found that CaRT had carefully fished a load of bikes\trollies\pushchairs etc. from the canal & left them on the side only for the fauna to return them back into the water. So it is not only boaters who do some not so clever things.

 

Having left the BCN I am loving the ease of movement, however there are parts of the BCN I would like to go back & do again or to expand the exploring.

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I suspect that those responsible for fetching out the bikes, trollies etc were people magnet fishing not CRT. The problem is that CRT say they haven't the resources to keep going round collecting the items so they just remain at the canalside waiting for some idiot to throw them back in. The problem with this is that originally many of them having been in the canal for a long time, were settled in the silt at the bottom and possibly low enough not to catch the bottom of boats, but when thrown in again, many probably won't be.

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spacer.pngI fished out a recently-dumped supermarket trolley from this bridge Wellington Bridge on the Walsall (BCN above RydersGreen bottom lock), and queued-up with it at the supermaket's customer-services desk. The trolley was a bit wet, as was I, and trailling a few bits of green weed. ...

 

Errr, it was the trolley that was trailling the green bits of weed. ...

 

Anyway, despite the fifty-quid's-worth of their equipment that I was returning to them, they were not at all pleased to see me ...

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3 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

spacer.pngI fished out a recently-dumped supermarket trolley from this bridge Wellington Bridge on the Walsall (BCN above RydersGreen bottollyom lock), and queued-up with it at the supermaket's customer-services desk. The trolley was a bit wet, as was I, and trailling a few bits of green weed. ...

 

Errr, it was the trolley that was trailling the green bits of weed. ...

 

Anyway, despite the fifty-quid's-worth of their equipment that I was returning to them, they were not at all pleased to see me ...

They will not want the trolley back once it has been in the canal.

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4 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

It all went in the CRT bins but bigger items were left next to the bins for removal. Unbelievably we had a letter from CRT telling us that on no account should rubbish from the canal be left for collection with general waste!

 

 

Probably, like us, C&RTs contract with Biffa states (words to the effect) "General domestic waste only - anything found not to be domestic waste will result in 1) charges being applied, 2) bins not accepted in future" stuff like dead bodies, carpets, bicycles, etc etc etc are not classed as 'domestic waste'.

 

It is the abuse of the bins by composting toilet users that kicked off all the hoo-hah a few months ago.

 

On this subject I can sympathise with C&RT - especially as they are under no obligation to provide waste services and could legally charge boaters for the sevice.

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2 minutes ago, noddyboater said:

When I used to be a part time steerer on the trip boat in Sheffield we used to return with a fine collection of crap off the prop most trips.

It all went in the CRT bins but bigger items were left next to the bins for removal. Unbelievably we had a letter from CRT telling us that on no account should rubbish from the canal be left for collection with general waste!

Not long after a full fire hose was retrieved from the prop and brought proudly back to the basin,  we tied it in knots through the door handles of the CRT office. 

 

We love having the trip boat travelling the canal in Sheffield. Being bigger and deeper than pretty much everything else, it keeps the canal clear for us by collecting much of the rubbish.

I'm seeing some unwarranted assumptions in this thread. Firstly that piles of rubbish on the towpath are left by boaters clearing their props and that piles of metalwork are from CaRT. The first is unlikely, since the canals with these piles are generally not frequently travelled by boat, like much of the BCN. The second is more likely to be from magnet fisherpersons. That the trolleys, bikes and old bombs and shells will likely be thrown back in later is just a ferrous version of the piscine fisherpersons catch and release! 😃

 

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I can't remember last time I was down in the weed hatch to remove rubbish. Ok I'm on rivers most of the time so there's less rubbish in the water but I did the whole of the K&A without having to open it. I regularly used to go from Brentford to Bulls bridge through Southall where there's lots of rubbish in the water and there are techniques to get through it without fouling your prop. When you see floating rubbish ahead take the engine out of gear and use the boat's momentum to glide through it before re-engaging forward gear. Ok that won't stop you picking up a submerged tyre or bag, but those aren't as common as floaters.

 

I can't help thinking if you're down in the weed hatch all the time you're doing something wrong.

Edited by blackrose
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18 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Probably, like us, C&RTs contract with Biffa states (words to the effect) "General domestic waste only - anything found not to be domestic waste will result in 1) charges being applied, 2) bins not accepted in future" stuff like dead bodies, carpets, bicycles, etc etc etc are not classed as 'domestic waste'.

 

It is the abuse of the bins by composting toilet users that kicked off all the hoo-hah a few months ago.

 

On this subject I can sympathise with C&RT - especially as they are under no obligation to provide waste services and could legally charge boaters for the sevice.

If that was the case I'd have hoped that CRT would have provided a suitable receptacle (maybe a skip?), as it was happening on such a regular occasion. 

Surely that would be better than basically saying to throw it back in the canal,  even if it did cost extra to have it emptied. 

What would you suggest should be done with such items,  if putting them in the bins isn't the done thing?

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24 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I can't help thinking if you're down in the weed hatch all the time you're doing something wrong.

 

The something wrong is taking a boat on the BCN, and the waterways around Manchester for rubbish, or the Chesterfield Canal and River Witham for actual weed. I'd never opened up the weed hatch in anger till the first time I took the boat up the Ashton flight. I got a reel of thick wire wrapped round the prop shaft. The boat behind had to deal with an entire mattress!

You can minimise the trips by using only gentle revs on the prop, particularly for slowing down as you go in to locks to avoid stirring the rubbish up. This doesn't eliminate the problem and  is ineffective on actual water weed.

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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1 hour ago, PeterScott said:

spacer.pngI fished out a recently-dumped supermarket trolley from this bridge Wellington Bridge on the Walsall (BCN above RydersGreen bottom lock), and queued-up with it at the supermaket's customer-services desk. The trolley was a bit wet, as was I, and trailling a few bits of green weed. ...

 

Errr, it was the trolley that was trailling the green bits of weed. ...

 

Anyway, despite the fifty-quid's-worth of their equipment that I was returning to them, they were not at all pleased to see me ...

 

If thats the bridge I think it is then i'm amazed that you only got one trolley, though I did hear (a while ago) that a CRT man visits every morning to pull the trolleys out, so maybe yours was a recent arrival.

Its a very odd place, we got seriously grounded right under that bridge and a group of locals gathered on the bridge and started throwing bread at us.

 

..............Dave   

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1 minute ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

 

The something wrong is taking a boat on the BCN, and the waterways around Manchester for rubbish, or the Chesterfield Canal and River Witham for actual weed.

I do a large portion of my boating on the BCN and mainly on boats without a weed hatch. Knocking it out of gear at bridge holes prevents picking up rubbish and gliding through areas where it is visibly full of rubbish helps.

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4 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I do a large portion of my boating on the BCN and mainly on boats without a weed hatch. Knocking it out of gear at bridge holes prevents picking up rubbish and gliding through areas where it is visibly full of rubbish helps.

Yup, as I edited my post to say while you were replying, careful use of the prop can minimise it. Actual water weed, like I found on the Daw End Branch will gum up a prop regardless.

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4 hours ago, NickF said:

I was surprised and dissapopinted to see several heaps of rubbish on the tow path right by the canal which were clearly what others had pulled out of their weed hatches.  

 

Personally I think it is really sad that boaters are littering the canals like this, how can we possible complain about rubbish in the canals when we don't help to clear it up ourselves.

This really annoys me and there's no need at all for it. Feel it shows boaters in a really bad light. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I'm seeing some unwarranted assumptions in this thread. Firstly that piles of rubbish on the towpath are left by boaters clearing their props and that piles of metalwork are from CaRT.  

The piles of rubbish I'm talking about are clearly left by boaters clearing their weed hatch. They tend to be left in piles by bridge holes or narrows, and tend to consist of neat piles of chewed and twisted plastic and other rubbish that has clearly been pulled off a prop. The piles of rusty metalwork however, are almost certainly left by magnet fishers. 

 

 

2 hours ago, blackrose said:

IWhen you see floating rubbish ahead take the engine out of gear and use the boat's momentum to glide through it before re-engaging forward gear.

I'd like to see this attempted on the Walsall canal🤣 There's miles of continuous floating rubbish to boat through! I agree that there's ways you can reduce your chance of collecting rubbish, but there's definitely no way of avoiding multiple weed hatch trips on parts of the BCN!

 

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5 hours ago, NickF said:

 I was surprised and dissapopinted to see several heaps of rubbish on the tow path right by the canal which were clearly what others had pulled out of their weed hatches.  

 

Personally I think it is really sad that boaters are littering the canals like this, how can we possible complain about rubbish in the canals when we don't help to clear it up ourselves.

 

 

Which do you do?

I cleared a couple of them up, one at Wolverhampton and one on the Tame valley. I always bin mine. It gets my goat as well

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17 minutes ago, Tom and Bex said:

 

 

I'd like to see this attempted on the Walsall canal🤣 There's miles of continuous floating rubbish to boat through! I agree that there's ways you can reduce your chance of collecting rubbish, but there's definitely no way of avoiding multiple weed hatch trips on parts of the BCN!

 

17 times on one of our 24 hour BCN challenges a few years ago, we were running out of roof space on the way down the Bradley Arm..

Edited by matty40s
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26 minutes ago, Tom and Bex said:

This really annoys me and there's no need at all for it. Feel it shows boaters in a really bad light. 

 

 

The piles of rubbish I'm talking about are clearly left by boaters clearing their weed hatch. They tend to be left in piles by bridge holes or narrows, and tend to consist of neat piles of chewed and twisted plastic and other rubbish that has clearly been pulled off a prop. The piles of rusty metalwork however, are almost certainly left by magnet fishers. 

 

 

I'd like to see this attempted on the Walsall canal🤣 There's miles of continuous floating rubbish to boat through! I agree that there's ways you can reduce your chance of collecting rubbish, but there's definitely no way of avoiding multiple weed hatch trips on parts of the BCN!

 

My last trip to Walsall on a working boat in May had no issues with picking up any rubbish or weed.  Chucking it in to reverse at the first sign of a change in prop wash or engine note usually clears it.

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Currently sat with a pile of random plastic netting and rope at the back awaiting a trip to the bins when we get back to the marina having been up through Brum, although doesn't sound like we did too badly compared with others. The fishing keep net, complete with all the metal rings did make me feel better when it came up shredded, felt like I was just getting my own back 😁.

 

Can't see the point of leaving it on the towpath, it'll only end up back in the canal again for the next boat to pick up.

 

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To answer the OP, if its organic like weed etc. then it gets slung in the hedge bottom out of the way, anything else goes in a bin liner on the back until we pass a suitable bin.

 

Anything sat on the towpath is too tempting for scrotes to boot back in i reckon, so if we ever fish logs or branches out they too are moved away from the edge as much as possible.

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