OVER two tonnes of rubbish were collected during last weekend's Great Borders River Clean.

Waste, including a broken kayak, a fishing rod, and a plethora of wet wipes, was all collected by more than 400 volunteers across towns and villages around the Borders.

Sites including Lauder, where 36 volunteers helped, and Innerleithen, where 43 volunteers found 105kg of rubbish, all took part from Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 1.

Organised by Melrose teacher, Tom Rawson, this was the second Great Borders River Clean, the first being held in October last year where 1,850kg of waste was collected.

Tom told us: "I was absolutely delighted by the number of enthusiastic volunteers willing to sacrifice their precious free time and to brave the awful weather to help tackle the massive problem of plastic pollution on our regions.

"In spite of the snow and storms, hundreds of people turned out in their towns and villages to both clear rubbish and to help highlight this insidious problem.

"Thank you so much to all those amazing people who helped out over the weekend."

Some locations however, postponed their events last weekend as high river levels made it impossible to take part.

Dates and times for postponed clean-ups will be shared over social media once details can be confirmed.

Another Borders-wide River Clean is in the works for this coming Autumn, with Tom hoping the clean up can become a bi-annual event.

He added: "Events like the Great Borders River Clean are as much about spreading the message of reducing littering and single-use plastic consumption as they are about removing their effects from the natural environment.

"A number of towns are planning follow-up events to be held when the river levels drop down again."

For future events and more information, you can find the Great Borders River Clean on Instagram under the name @greentweedco and on Tom's personal Facebook page.