News

With the winter weather, it seems that not only salt, but also plastic has been spread fanatically. Leiden's cycle paths are littered with thousands of bright green plastic straws, broken off from the brushes of snow sweepers. Volunteers from the Plastic Spotter project quickly found more than 3,000 such straws. "I just kept picking them up," says the volunteer.

Friday, December 11, Vroege Vogels viewers were able to enjoy beautiful Leiden. From botanical sidewalk chalking to trash in the canal. Presenter Menno Bentveld visited the litter nests of coots and presenter Willemijn Veenhoven joined a canal clean-up.

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.