Royal Navy removes two tonnes of trash from waterways around the world

The Royal Navy has proved its environmental credentials after personnel from the service removed two and a half tonnes of rubbish from oceans and waterways around the world.

The head of the Navy asked personnel to give up their spare time to get one tonne's worth of rubbish off beaches around the globe.

The challenge started in June and ran until this autumn, having been promoted by Thomas Morgan, an 11-year-old schoolboy who wrote to Admiral Sir Ben Key challenging the Navy to collect a tonne of rubbish from the coast.

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Twenty ships and units ended up responding to the challenge, taking it on where they were based or on patrol, and the one-tonne target was smashed.

Lieutenant Imogen Napper, a Royal Naval Reservist and marine scientist with the University of Plymouth who oversaw the challenge, said she was delighted with the result.

She said the Navy should be "rightly proud of their achievements".

"The success of the One Tonne Challenge is testament to the impact that can result from a good idea, supported by senior leaders and with a plan to deliver," she said.

"Connecting with people across the Navy and seeing the positive environmental results and the discussion that has formed has been really encouraging. Together, we are stepping in the right direction for environmentalism."

Bottles, boxes, cartons, plastics, tins, wrappers and general waste were removed from shorelines from Diego Garcia to Devon.

Two seemingly idyllic locations actually yielded more than a tonne of rubbish between them.

Diego Garcia, a tiny UK dependency in the British Indian Ocean Territories, produced 780kg of rubbish, while HMS Dauntless collected 300kg of rubbish in Curaçao, located  in the Caribbean.

The clean-up did not just take part by the seashore, with Navy reservists collecting around 200kg of rubbish from the banks of the River Trent in Nottingham.

Royal Marines Reservists from Merseyside also picked up 200kg of rubbish from canals and towpaths in the Birmingham area.

And when reservists from HMS Eaglet in Liverpool tackled the Mersey shoreline, Thomas joined them.

"Taking part showed me that the day was much more than a simple litter-picking exercise," the schoolboy said.

"It was amazing to see a sense of community and the formation of lasting relationships around the One Tonne Challenge that I helped create."