News

The Leidens Ontzet of 2020 unfortunately passed quietly for many Leiden citizens due to the corona pandemic that made most festivities around 3 October impossible. To still have a feeling of liberation for Leiden, the documentary Canalcups premiered in October.

A year ago, we discovered that plastic nets for making grass sturdier were ending up in the water in large numbers. We asked the municipality questions, cleared them up as much as possible and are still monitoring their distribution..

The new academic year has started and with it education as well. Associate professor Dennis Claessen and Director of Education Han de Winde from the Institute of Biology Leiden set-up an environmentally friendly introduction to the Leiden Bio Science Park for their students, with the help of Plastic Spotters Liselotte Rambonnet and Auke-Florian Hiemstra.

Chilling out on a terrace without worrying about disposable plastic blowing into the canals? That's possible in Leiden. The terraces of Brasserie De Poort and Tanoor, at the Haven, will be completely free of disposable plastic from 1 August 2020. Lot and the Whale will join later. And Logica, on the Stille Rijn, has been free of single-use plastic since its establishment in 2014.

The canal is a reflection of human activity. We used to have a sea of plastic cups after big events, but thanks to the efforts of Canal Cups, this image belongs to the past. After the outbreak of Corona, the canal once again manages to hold up a mirror to us.