This City worker ditched his job to recycle plastic from a home-made floating bike on London's canals

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January 19, 2018 10:51 AM

Dhruv Boruah uses a bamboo bike attached to two floats, with a propeller powered by the rear wheel. We joined him for a ride from Paddington to Camden.

Dhruv Boruah collects plastic along London's canals.
He uses a bamboo bike attached to two floats, with a propeller powered by the rear wheel.
Dhruv used to be a management consultant. He now is giving back to the community.
We joined him for a ride from Paddington to Camden.

Dhruv Boruah collects plastic along London's canals on a floating bike he built himself.

Business Insider joined him for a ride from Paddington basin to Camden Market and spoke to him about why he does it.

"It’s about raising awareness about plastic pollution and how much plastic has penetrated in our society and in our culture," he said.

"There’s plastic in the fish that we eat. There’s plastic in the soil, in tap water. We need to stop it now before it becomes too bad. I’m just trying to get people to refuse plastic if they can or reuse, recycle them."

Dhruv used to be a management consultant. He is now involved in a variety of projects to give back to the community.

He uses a bamboo bike attached to two floats, with a propeller powered by the rear wheel. The bike takes 45 minutes to set up.

He collects as much as he can, but sometimes there’s too much and things have to be left.

On his journey to Camden Market, he collected a lot of single plastic packets – from fish cans to bottles, styrofoam, and also a lot of glasses from the riverside cafes.

Cycling on the river can be dangerous, too. Dhruv often goes through dark tunnels and has to respect the traffic with other boats coming his way.

Before each cleanup, Dhruv does a risk assessment to make sure he’s safe.

Of course, Dhruv’s vessels doesn’t go unnoticed. A lot of people in Camden Market took pictures of him on his bike and asked about his cause. He says this is a great conversation starter to raise awareness.

Dhruv hopes to organise more cleanup projects in the future all over the UK.

If you want to helpin this plastic pollution campaign, you can visit his websites , and

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