The plastic spotters

Do you have grandchildren and you are a little bit adventurous? Invite them for a cleanup trip in the canal by kayak. That’s what Magda and her husband did with their two grandchildren, a really lovely group that did its part to become clean and green waterways 🌊. Next, Euronext employees also participated in a […]

Summer is the perfect occasion to get out on the water and clean up trash. That’s also what Sethupathy and his friend, Erik and his son and Charlotte with her friends thought. During their trip they saved some plastic trash from ending up in the sea. We also had the pleasure of receiving Virginie and […]

🌿 Each paddle stroke is a ripple of change towards a greener future. Ruth, a passionate coach, came with 12 of her Brussels students to celebrate the end of their secondary education. Each paddle stroke taken by these young individuals is a step towards a greener future, though they still have much to learn about […]

Secretary of State responsible for Urban Planning in Brussels, Ans Persoons, is the first participant of our canal trips under our new name City to Ocean 🥳💦. Ans, together with Anaïs Maes, alderman for urban planning at the city of Brussels, and other colleagues fished trash out of the water. And we discussed the different […]

? Our recent kayaking trips have been like planting seeds of ideas in the minds of the participants. During one of these trips, Théodore and his colleagues from the Belgian Chambers collected several kilos of floating debris from the Brussels canal, a freshly planted seed that could lead to a bigger ecological awareness. ? Sarah […]

We are happy to share three amazing groups we recently received for our kayak outings ! ?‍♂️ First, we welcomed Brede School Nieuwland with their “Nature and Mobility” working group. They invited primary school teachers for a kayaking excursion, offering a unique educational experience on the water. Then, for the second time, we hosted some […]

We were thrilled to have an incredible wave of volunteers join our recent kayak outings! One of them is Erik, he has three sons and joins us son by son to make them experience our activity and learn about the problems of waterways. Abdelaziz also joined us before but this time brought his family along.Then, […]

For the first time we received an Austrian politician in our kayaks. Stefan Kaineder, the Minister for Environment and Climate from Upper Austria, had meetings in Brussels about the European Green Deal initiatives ??? and decided to pay us a visit. We discussed the challenges the waterways in Brussels are facing and what the situation […]

We recently had the pleasure of hosting four groups eager to learn more about water issues in Brussels during our kayak outings on the canal.Among them, many students from diverse backgrounds, including students from Utrecht University participating in their PPE program, students from Haute École Francisco Ferrer, and business students from Don Bosco Groot-Bijgaarden.We also […]

Recently, we welcomed three groups determined to purify our canal and to raise their own awareness of environmental issues ?? The VUB – Vrije Universiteit Brussel has its own “GreenTeam”, a group of committed and passionate students. They came to gain a better understanding of the water-related issues we work on. Finaly, they managed to […]

Welcome aboard to our kayaking trips in 2024, new dedicated participants came, saw and conquered the litter problem!  Through the Try Out initiative, we’ve had the chance to host young people facing challenges for a kayaking trip focused on collecting waste in the canal. This activity is crucial for raising awareness about plastic pollution in […]

Talented Youth Network, Circular Court group, colleagues from Post NL Belgium and Joker Reis Visiting youth makes us feel young so we were very happy to have motivated youngsters from Talented Youth Network, TYN and Ras El Hanout Asbl from Molenbeek, as well as a group from the EU funded activities of Circular Court. They […]

Several organizations recently joined the shared environmental responsibility for clean waterways during working hours, some despite the Brussels autumn weather!  TUC RAIL , with its focus on rail transportation, plays an important role in reducing emissions by offering an eco-friendly mode of travel. Which steps can be taken towards more sustainable mobility?  BNP Paribas Fortis […]

School group and enthusiastic colleagues from Bruxelles Environment, Achilles Design, GiveaDay & Degroof Petercam Foundation We kicked off the month of October with a diverse group of individuals and organizations all focused on the environment and community service: School Group: Young, enthusiastic learners eager to make a difference in our environment. Bruxelles Environnement Leefmilieu Brussel : committed […]

School group from Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, colleagues from Muntpunt Library & Magabel Company, National Bank from Belgium and Optimy Teaching the young ones to care for our environment is a mission close to our hearts. It was therefore great to host a school group from Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, and see the motivated faces of these new kids on the […]

Oda with Friends, school group from Maria-Boodschaplyceum, UPS team, Gents MilieuFront & Degroof Petercam Foundation Hurray!! Oda wanted to celebrate her birthday fishing for trash with her friends. They even dressed up in Canal It Up t-shirts. Double Hurray, we welcomed yet another school group, Maria-Boodschaplyceum , with dedicated teachers bringing their students to the forefront […]

Okan students, KMPG, Umicore, Aude, Eloise, Frankie with friends Aude, Eloise, and Frankie joined our activity with friends, some of whom were all the way from Denmark. On that particular day, the canal was exceptionally dirty, so they didn’t have to go far to return with buckets full of collected trash.We also welcomed a group […]

Tier,Taisei, Belarbi and Michelle with friends, TADA, teachers and Unilin It was the perfect weather for weekend activities as the new school year began! Tier, Taisei, Belarbi and Michelle, along with their friends, joined us to help pick up some trash and make a positive impact!TADA – Toekomstatelierdelavenir , an organization that supports vulnerable teenagers […]

Teachers, FOD Finance and VEKA The teachers of a new school that recently opened its doors in Molenbeek started their new adventure by a kayaking adventure. It provided them with a wonderful opportunity to bond and get to know each other in an active and enjoyable manner, just before the start of the school year.We […]

JOETZ vzw, Arktos vzw, Mauro, Ellen with friends, Proximus and TCS JOETZ vzw volunteers from the Canary Islands did a trash fishing trip on their way to their windsurf camp. Their experience highlighted the unfortunate reality that water cleanliness is a concern across Belgium. sTeam a partnership between Arktos vzw , JAC, Emino and Groep […]

Sandra, Guy, Charlotte and co., BIGH Farming, Fedasil, Clara and family, and Gemeenschapscentrum Den Dam In August, individuals like Sandra, Guy, Charlotte, Clara, some of them solo and some accompanied by family or friends, all took to the water. All of them would like to see clean and green waterways. A team from Bigh Farming […]

Bo, Christelle, Leen and Katlijn with friends and family, Toyota motor Europe Bo and his family from Denmark joined us during their stay in Belgium. Their unwavering enthusiasm persisted, undeterred even when rain began to pour down. Christelle, Leen, and Katlijn arrived, accompanied by their friends for a trip of trash fishing by kayak. And […]

Mosaïc asbl, Maison de l’Europe, Amazon and Milliman Maison de l’Europe brought a group of 9 young adults from France, who were in Brussels to explore the European institutions and cultivate their roles as engaged citizens. Amid their busy schedule, they dedicated time to ponder the future and confront environmental challenges. Their journey on the […]

Drees & Sommer, Zabala, imago asbl Embracing the summer vibe Imago Asbl joined us with a group of young adults. They really enjoyed themselves on the water, adding even more energy to the day’s activities.Drees & Sommer opted to break free from their desks and computer screens to soak up the fresh air on the […]

Mobius, Amazon, Marjan, Heleen and co. Marjan and Heleen, along with their friends, participated in our canal cleaning activity and they had a fantastic time together! Möbius Business Redesign chose to clean the canal for their teambuilding activity, and we give them extra kudos for their unwavering dedication even when the rain poured down! Amazon.com […]

Ethibel, Gerd, Sara with friends, Brussels Parliament, Umicore Sara and her friends, along with Gerd and his friend, spent a fulfilling Saturday with us. It was a day well spent, indeed! Ethibel was one of the groups who helped us with our brand audit. Their interest in the number of recycled bags found in the […]

AFAS Software, WWF, Eric, Chiro and IKEA AFAS Software België surprised their team with a fantastic outing on the canal, and it was a resounding success! They had an incredible time cleaning the canal and couldn’t get enough of the experience. They even kept bumping into their Canal It Up guide over the weekend – […]

Dynafin, Cinemaximiliaan, Giulia with friends, Sebastien and Konni DynaFin Consulting arrived with a motivated team, ready to clean the canal and make a difference! Cinemaximiliaan gathered a group of people for this eye-opening activity, coming together to create an impactful experience. Giulia celebrated her 30th birthday by inviting her friends to join her on the […]

Schneider Electric, BNP Paribas Fortis, the scouts, Charles, Vico, and their friends Schneider Electric joined us during their sustainability day, combining a canal trip with a brainstorm session organized at Belmundo . Their commitment to prioritizing sustainability was inspiring! BNP Paribas Fortis België also made a significant impact by bringing their team together for a […]

World Environment Day with the UN Environment Programme and the European Commission Monday, 5 June was World Environment Day and for that occasion 20 participants from UN Environment Programme and the European Commission spent the afternoon with the Canal It Up crew. They kayaked and fished trash out of the water, picked up trash on […]

Sint-Jozefscollege Torhout, Deloitte, Xavier, Karel and Inge Who let the boys out? Sint-Jozefscollege Torhout descended down upon the canal once again with a group of motivated students. Besides lots of single-use plastics they found some road signalling equipment of which we know it couldn’t have been blown into the water by the wind. the A-team […]

The Sint-Maarten Bovenschool Beveren, the Go4city School of Molenbeek, and Rozelien with her friends From Beveren to Brussels, the Sint-Maarten Bovenschool embarked on an exciting week-long adventure to explore the city. They had an incredible time discovering Brussels from our kayaks combining both utility and enjoyment!A special shoutout to Rozelien and her friends who joined […]

The Youth Team of WWF-Belgium The Youth Team from WWF-Belgium chose to help restore the local nature by cleaning up the Brussels canal. While fishing trash out of the water they also gained insights into the issues of poor water quality, floating trash and lack of nature and biodiversity and the possible solutions. As you […]

Radio students of RITCS School of Art and Scouts from the Saint-Paul unity Adventurous radio students from RITCS School of Arts put on their Captain outfit to take on the challenge of the canal. During their trash-fishing expedition, they stumbled upon some peculiar objects, including a Harry Potter pillow and a perfectly usable basketball. We […]

European Parliament collaborators, Surfrider Foundation Europe and European Environmental Bureau We met with European Parliament collaborators who were invited by Surfrider Foundation Europe Brussels Office and European Environmental Bureau – EEB to experience a trip on the Brussels canal. The collaborators are working on the revision of the European wastewater treatment legislation.We discussed the situation […]

Semetis, King’s College London Alumni, architecture students of the VUB, Rudy, Sara and Tille with friends and family Our efforts to clean up the canal are going strong, with new groups joining us twice a week. Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting colleagues from Semetis , alumni from King’s College London Alumni – Belgium […]

European School of Bruxelles-Argenteuil, KAKoekelberg and Apptweak Between the winds in March and the showers in April, the students from the EEBA Ecole européenne de Bruxelles-Argenteuil and Koninklijk Atheneum Koekelberg were fortunate to have a bit of sunny weather. The KAKoekelberg students were joined by their exchange students from Spain, who had the unique experience […]

Brussels waterdays: Benoit Hellings, friends, families, and a Church from Brussels Lots of water falling from the sky at Brussels Water Days last Saturday. But that didn’t stop the ones who subscribed for a cleanup trip on the canal. Two mothers joined with their young sons, there was a group from a Brussels Church, groups […]

Sint-Lukaskunsthumaniora and Het College Vilvoorde Who says winter means no kayaking? Not us! The students from @Sint-Lukas Kunsthumaniora Brussel hit the water and enjoyed the views of Brussels while cleaning the Canal. We were also joined by @Het College Vilvoorde, who cycled all the way to our docking zone.  While we had a fun time, we […]

LUCA School of Arts, Kunsthumaniora Brusselet le International School of Brussels Being schooled on the water! No better way to show students the problems of water and plastic pollution than to let them experience it by themselves. The Interior design students of LUCA School of Arts joined around their yearly theme, water. Hopefully there experience […]

Maïa’s family and the International School of Brussels The cold didn’t stop these first COURAGEOUS kayakers of the year to get out on the water! Maïa works for Canal It Up and brought her family to the canal during the Christmas holidays to immerse them in her daily life. Luckily the sun was out, and […]

International school of Brussels, Students from Theux, Nicole, Chris, Chris and co., Initio Belgique, Liesbeth, Geneviève, Student from Vives and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science It is COOOOOLD, but our kayaking trips continu all year round! These brave people joined us in November and December. We had students from the International School of […]

Brauzz, Terumo, International school of Brussels, Minglers, Daviña and co. Who could have known that when Brauzz, a start-up of sustainable cleaning products, and Terumo Europe Nv, a healthcare company, planned a kayak activity for October the sun would be out, and the temperature would be around the 20°C. It is pleasant but mostly it […]

Grohe, CAW Brussel Schuldbemiddeling, D-carbonize, Nola, Minglers and the International School of Brussels The people behind GROHE constantly work in the water business, clean water normally. This time they changed from clean water to water to clean. In the early morning after a croissant and some coffee they jumped in our kayaks to go and […]

Molenbeek council member of cleanliness, Gloria Garcia Fernandez, her colleagues, and reporters from Le Soir Gloria Garcia Fernandez , Molenbeek council member of cleanliness, dressed up for Halloween and a trip on the canal. Together with her colleagues she fished lots of trash out of the water and she could observe with her own eyes […]

VUB Biology master students, Apptweak, Minglers, Ibostar, Celine and friends On the 7 th of October colleagues from AppTweak: ASO Tool Driven by Data Science together with a group of 30 Biology master students from the VUB – Vrije Universiteit Brussel joined us on the water. The students were very interested and had many interesting […]

The scouts of Jette, Flora, Ilse, Tom and co, minglers, BPC, Oris and Optimy October started with good weather, and our boats were still full! The Scouts Jette went on the water, and even though they predicted some heavy rain, they were greeted in the morning with rays of sunshine. After them several duos followed […]

Les jardins du 8eme jour, Catalina, Serco, Destelheide, Dow and the department of Urban Planning of the city of Leuven We had the pleasure to receive some members of Les Jardins du 8ème Jour , adults with a mild mental handicap. For their project Amiko they do several cultural and civil activities to open them […]

Flemish minister of Brussels Benjamin Dalle, Politico Europe and bike repairs with Molembike Flemish Minister of Brussels Benjamin Dalle took place in one of ours kayaks to go kayaking for a clean canal. Like everybody, he was surprised about the frequency and the volumes with which the canal and the Senne are polluted by sewage […]

The United Nations organisation UNRIC, a bachelorette party and Arcadis Belgium on World Cleanup Day For World Cleanup day the United Nations organisation United Nations Regional Information Centre- UNRIC equiped themselves with fishing nets, litter pickers and kayaks to go and hunt for trash. Colleagues around the world did exactly the same during their yearly […]

Mina Guli runs 200 marathons in 1 year for her Run Blue campaign After completing her 101st MARATHON at our docking zone in Brussels we had the chance to meet Mina Guli and go and fish trash out of the canal together. Mina is running 200 MARATHONS in one year for her #RunBlue campaign. She wants […]

Edelman Global Advisory, motivated Dutch youngsters, Minglers, C’est tof in den Hof, Flemish department of agriculture and fisherie, Robert, Evelien, Annelore, Sigrid, Rita, Laurence and Tim Edelman Global Advisory, a communications firm in an evolving geopolitical environment, is not only about online communication, in full action in our kayaks on the canal they too communicated […]

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) on a field trip The European Environmental Bureau – EEB joined us for some field work on the canal. One part of the team is working on the revision of the waste water treatment legislation. The bar will be RAISED for all european countries and one of the issues EEB […]

A soccer player, fluent english, Minglers and a large group Vincent, Football player from the Rue de Flandre Team, brought his son Elliot to fish trash out of the canal. And since that day Elliot speaks fluent english that he picked up on the water. This must have been because Elodie, Uldis, Matteo, Paula, Estelle, […]

Saintklet, Sureal and a Police-Youngsters project Lots of variety at the end of August. A whole bunch of cool Saintklet guys and girls jumped into the kayaks to free the canal from floating trash. A day later they were joined by a group of Sureal colleagues. When they are not fishing for trash they support others […]

Cofinimmo, a football and Sebastiaan with friends Maxime, Wouter and Nazli from Cofinimmo wanted to do something different for their teambuilding and they came on 25 August to paddle and fish for trash. Wouter was particularly happy with the new football he found! Sometimes, the canal yields lost treasures. Afterwards Sebastiaan and his friends also formed […]

The First Minglers, Violette, a floating bicyle, Nathalie and Froukje On 20 August, Violette had prepared a surprise for her improv group and organised a kayak trip for them. They found a bicycle, hanging to a ladder just below water surface, and had a fun time getting it into the kayak. Thanks to this prized […]

Buumplanters, JCI Belgium and Jeunes Citoyens Actifs Saturday 13 August was a warm day… very warm, and the canal displayed its classic bright green colour of hot Summer days. But it would have taken more to put off our brave Canalituppers of the day. We welcomed Victoria from JCI Belgium and her group of Jeunes […]

German television ZDF, BIPT and KPMG, a day of abreviations On 10 August, we had a pretty special day. We welcomed very motivated collegues from BIPT – IBPT but that’s not all… Have you spotted the microphone yet? It’s hanging above their heads on one of the pictures. And what about the cameraman? It was […]

A great Belgian National Day with Myrthe & co, the Maison médicale du Vieux Molenbeek and MJ La Clef On 21 July, Myrthe and a group of friends came to Brussels for a double celebration – the Belgian national day of course, but more importantly, a bachelorette party! We’ll give them a 10 for the […]

An enthronment with Sony, a language class with Red Cross youngsters and the DHL fun team On Friday 15 July we witnessed a very special ceremony. A team from Sony Belgium went fishing, found a 21st-century mass produced throne, and officially chose the queen of the day. Afterwards, we welcomed a group of Pashto- and Arabic-speaking […]

Fedasil Molenbeek, Chiro Vilvoorde, Sabine, Luis & friends, Anke & family, Hilke & Alexis the warriors, and a totem ceremony with Eva! On July 10, Fedasil Molenbeek filled all our kayaks with a very enthusiastic group. They were followed by four members of the Chirojeugd Vlaanderen , who came all the way from Vilvoorde by […]

Un petit coup de BALLET avec le Théâtre des Martyrs Mercredi 6 juillet, nous avons mis en SCÈNE un petit BALLET de kayaks pour l’équipe du Théâtre des Martyrs . Certains sont descendus dans les embarcations avec une grâce naturelle tandis que d’autres ont préféré diriger les opérations depuis le quai. Mais qu’ils aient été […]

Sunday Adventure with Hélène & co, Indiandribble Sunday ADVENTURE, Hélène brought her friends Matthew, Majda, Sylvain, Manon and Alessandro to clean the canal. As it turns out, Hélène seems to love cleaning in general and she is always looking for new tricks to keep her environment sparkling. We are happy that she shared her passion […]

Plastic Soup Surfer, Arjen & Sarah aka the pigeon saviours, Simon & friends, Emily, Koen & Ellen What a productive morning! We accompanied Plastic Soup Surfer for the start of his e-foil trip all the way to Amsterdam, fished several kg of trash out of the water, and Sarah en Arjen saved a pigeon from […]

Go Kompaz Zaventem, Stratec & BNP Parisbas Fortis Three COOL groups, a new guide and soOoOo much sun, all on june 29th! First, we welcomed 10 Ukranian pupils from GO Kompaz Zaventem and their cheerful teachers, Hannah and Elia. These youngsters are learning Dutch and they understood quite a bit of the presentation. Elia, who […]

Minister Alain Maron in our kayaks! Today, MINISTER Alain Maron joined us near and on the water. We had a constructive discussion about the problems of water quality and litter, and the different ways of solving them.Among other things, we discussed the deposit system for cans and bottles and the special TASKFORCE we think is […]

Brussels Beer Project celebrated their new brewery with us! Our kayaks went on a little TRIP themselves, all the way to Biestebroeck dock and the new brewery of Brussels Beer Project. Being out of their own zone, they got a warm welcome from all the local beer brewers. To celebrate the opening of the brewery, […]

Ecorys Brussels, Emily, Massimo, Véronique, Britt & friends, and pom pom POM West-Vlaanderen On 19 June, we welcomed a group of colleagues from Ecorys Brussels, who were so committed they dedicated a couple of hours on a Sunday to come and fish out some trash. Afterwards, their vacated seats were soon taken up by a […]

Pic-nic under the Bridge, Surfrider Foundation & Groep Intro ? On 12 June, we PICNICED under the BRIDGE… mmh not really because it’s difficult to keep your lunch from being soaked but we did play waterpolo. We participated in our own way to Picnic the Bridge, an event organised by @pic nic the streets to […]

Publiq vzw, Hugo, Stijn & zijn lerarenteam, Aimée & haar tieners, Emma & co Een heel gemotiveerde groep van @Publiq vzw liet zich op 8 juni niet doen door de regen en kwam voor een teambuilding bij ons varen. De collega’s wisten op voorhand niet wat ze gingen doen en het was duidelijk een aangename […]

Air Liquid, Green Trotters, Remko, Agata & Co! On 3 June, Margaux showed up with a whole bunch of colleagues from @Air Liquid. Many didn’t know each other and the kayak trips were a nice occasion to have a chat with people from other departments while doing something good for the environment.  The next day, […]

All the Colours of the Rainbow ? On 25 May, a whole group of colleagues from the youth movement @ksanationaal came to add some blue to our palette! Their traditional uniform and bright smiles created quite a striking effect together with our flashy orange life jackets. Thank you for bringing colour to life and helping to […]

Treasures and Creatures ? Volunteers were plentiful in our kayaks on Saturday 21 May. Charlène and Helena came with their friends, and they were joined by Mathilde. We also welcomed Lisbeth and her daughter, who might be young but very committed already! She found some rare treasure and maybe took it home as a souvenir? […]

Abla, Lions & Hailstones Yesterday, we had to compose with bad weather for the first time in months! We had to postpone some trips unfortunately but still, two groups got lucky. ⛈ In the morning, @vzwalba came out of the water just in time before the drache. This organisation is active in the sector of youth care in […]

The Sint-Jozefscollege from Torhout, Eurodad, Severine and Vincent A whole class from Sint-Jozefscollege Torhout brightened our day on 6 May. Look at those smiles! ? These motivated young people chose our kayak trips among a full list of activities for their Brussels day-out – thank you! On May 14, we welcomed Ilaria and her committed […]

Abrusco vzw, Fedasil, 2dehands & Vivacité – all in one day! So much happened on May 10th! We had the honour to welcome highly motivated people from from Fedasil, 2dehands (2ememain) and Abrusco VZW, an association doing amazing work to help youth in Brussels. Some of the participants were even interviewed by Vivacité Radio who came to […]

Those guys were itching to get into our kayaks Fiona and Friends, Erik and his sun, Daniela and herself and Pieter with friends. That’s what made a motivated group of people on a Sunday afternoon to sail out on the water and hunt for trash. Exactly one sunday later Stadskriebels@Canal transformed the canal area in one […]

Jef Van Damme in our kayaks! Jef Van Damme, deputy mayor of public works for the municipality of Molenbeek, joined us on the water. The canal marks the limit of Molenbeek over 1km, so it’s in their interest too that it becomes green and healthy. We discussed the different problems and possible solutions. One extra challenge […]

The Week of the Brussels students and the Maria Assumptalyceum Laken Last week on Friday we welcomed some enthusiastic students for the Week of the Brussels Students. This event was launched by Brik – Student in Brussel to enable the students to make up for all the lost opportunities during the difficult covid period and […]

HIAF School, the Meininger Hotel and so many signatures for our petition! Last Wednesday, the HIAF school and the Meininger hotel came on the water to fish for trash. For the citizen internship of their students, the school wanted to come and clean the canal with our organization. A big thanks to these motivated students […]

Nothing but committed young people! NOTHING but committed young people on April 23rd! One of these youngsters could almost have taken over our explanation of problems and solutions. He had informed himself very well in order to get people to sign our petition for a deposit system. Well done! Two others, Ilias and Mollie, are members […]

The Easter bunny visited Canal It Up with Stijn, Oda, Marca and her women’s club Easter is treating us well with such good weather. Perfect conditions to get out there on the water. Stijn, founder architect of Kaderstudio, and his daughter Oda found a dolphin captured in concrete watching the water from the side. The […]

More scouts and a soporific kayak trip Scouts De Pelgrims from Groot-Bijgaarden came to Brussels for a weekend around the theme Environnement and Sustainability. Their trip on the canal to fish the trash out of the water was spot on. We couldn’t do differently than welcoming these forward looking, future saving youngsters.  Next was Aymeric […]

A KLJ group, always enthusiastic! Even when it’s pouring rain… On this RAINY monday, 6 girls from KLJ Vlezenbeek Meisjes challenged the rain and wind to collect 2.5 kilos of waste from the canal. And these highly motivated girls brought us 70 signatures to prevent waste of finding its way into nature instead of fishing […]

School time with KA Etterbeek, Plastic Factory and Roberto the documentary maker ? Monday was SCHOOL time, 22 motivated and cheerful students from @katterbeek rolled up their sleeves to come and fish for trash. They witnessed a canal with way more trash than they ever could clean up. Luckily they brought more than 200 signatures […]

Brussels Water Days, a colorful gang and TADA Out on the water for the Brussels Water days with this colorful gang of people. The bright shining sun helped all participants to save the oceans from lots of trash. All ages were present and the young most of all with ToekomstATELIERdelAvenir and their teachers. They held […]

Rotalink Yesterday the youngsters of RotaLink set their sails direction the canal of Brussels. It was a perfect sunny sunday to go and fish plastic out of the water. Rotaract is an international organisation for youngsters for self-development and with a mission to serve the community, and that they did, even more than that, a […]

Radio 2 en Stand-up comedian Erhan Demirci twee uur live vanop het water Twee uur lang LIVE radio vanop het water met Radio 2 en Stand-up comedian Erhan Demirci. Radio 2 zette voor de week van de vrijwilligers de Weldoeners Actie op om zoveel mogelijk luisteraars aan te zetten een paar uurtjes te gaan vrijwilligen […]

Pure love, a dead cormorant and a close-knit group “Pure Love” this is how Alessio, the guide of the day and much more, described his trip last Saturday. Summary of this outing: a lot of rubbish collected, an unfortunate cormorant found dead and a close-knit group. 10 people that did not know each other at the […]

First trip of 2022! The FIRST trip of 2022 was an amazing start of the NEW year. The Youngsters of ToekomstATELIERdelAvenir and their mentors showed an inspiring enthusiasm and eagerness to learn about the problems and solutions. They made the canal clean again, at least for a couple of hours.  Also Ingrid joined us and […]

Pepijn Kennis and colleagues on the water Not his FIRST time on the canal, but indeed a first to fish trash out of the canal for Pepijn kennis, elected spokesman in Parliament for his Brussels Citizens Assembly, and his two colleagues.  They saw the trash, learned about the water quality problem and found a floating […]

Service Public Régional de Bruxelles – How to make beautiful pictures! Bring your own PHOTOGRAPHER and the pictures will be BEAUTIFUL . That’s what SPRB – GOB must have though when they were planning their trip on the canal. The Brussels civil servants had a great time on the water and have some nice pictures […]

4 Students, 6 consultants and 2 roommates The COLD couldn’t STOP these 4 first year students elementary education from Brugge, the 6 consultants in mobility, environment and urban planning and two roommates from Brussels. All of them nestled into their warmest clothes for a relaxing ride on the water to go and fish trash out […]

Quitness in the middle of the city together with RTL New kids on the block, Naomi and her 5 friends, Sarah from RTL Info , Julie, Stéphane, Baptiste and Justine put on their warm clothes to go and fish plastic trash out of the water. “Amazing what kind of calmness you encounter on the water […]

Kanal Side of Life, Färm, Homegrade and road separator from Kaaitheater WHO WHO WHO were the ones to fish the plastic out of the canal these last days? Thiery and Nathalie of Kanal Side of Life , who want to publish stories about life near the canal, brought a team of Färm to hunt for […]

Jane Goodall Institute Belgium, Levi’s, Sint-Guido Anderlecht, Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel, Greenpeace Belgium, Internes of the European Commission and youngsters of Fedasil Sint-Pieters Woluwe “ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL” together with Jane Goodall Institute Belgium and their friends of Levi’s , with the next generation youngsters of Sint-Guido Instituut Anderlecht , the student representatives of Vlaamse […]

FOD Mobiliteit, a fish, a car tyre and much more fisherman While temperatures are dropping slowly but steadily towards winter we continue our kayak cleaning activities. It’s never too cold to go and protect nature and strive for a future with less trash. These New Kids fished a bunch of trash out of the water, […]

An Antwerp school, TADA, courageous deaf and hard-of-hearing young people, Chiro, friends and Members of Parliament Who are the PEOPLE who join us in our kayaks? Well, this last week we had a school from Antwerp, amazing children from ToekomstATELIERdelAvenir , a group of courageous deaf and impaired hearing youngsters, youth movement Chiro Heilig Hart […]

Canal Trash Fisherman bathe in SUN while cleaning up the WATER “Canal Trash Fishermen bathe in SUN while cleaning up the WATER.” It could be the title of a news article of last week trips on the canal.While we our approaching 2.000 persons in our kayaks, the trash meter surpassed 5.000 kg of trash fished […]

World Cleanup Day BAGS and BAGS and BAGS, World Cleanup Day was a succes thanks to all the motivated people who came to clean up on land and on the water.Year after year the amount of litter is rising in Belgium, our society is flooded by trash and single-use packaging. Cleanups are being organised for […]

Waterbus, Save The Plastic, CFE, BPC, FC Eliza, Kinderdagverblijf onze vriendjes, FOD Landbouw en visserij What HAPPENS during all the trips we organise in the canal is amazing, the canal becomes a place to MEET other PEOPLE and organisations. And that is what we have in mind generally for the canal area, to make it […]

RTBF – Recording of Alors On Change Aujourd’hui, l’équipe RTBF nous a rejoint dans les kayaks pour tourner les images du premier épisode Alors on Change de la nouvelle saison.Les déchets sont venus voir le spectacle en masse. Parmi les improbables, une bougie de Sainte Rita et un ballon zéro-déchets. Un tout grand merci à […]

Many HANDS make the job very EASY. Group after group our kayaks are doing so many kilometers in their hunt for trash. And the trash is never far away.One of the discoveries was a voodoo doll, clearly used in a ritual. If the goal was to drown it in the end, that part failed, it […]

The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the board of directors of the Port de Bruxelles – Haven van Brussel , Yassine Akki and Anthony Baert, subscribed for a Sunday stroll of trash fishing by kayak.Never been so close to the water they witnessed loads of floating trash, dead animals and a greasy kind of water. […]

If everything we find in the canal would be worth something we would be RICH. These last days trash floats on the water in ABUNDANCE.FC Eliza followed their competitors FC Motivée and Les filles du block into our kayaks. They found the weirdest item ever taken to shore. We still could’t figure out what it […]

These New Kids were lucky to be on the water with a bright shining sun. At least some of them. Jolien brought her two young daughters who at first weren’t too enthusiastic, but coming out of the water with a full bucket of treasures (trash) they clearly enjoyed the hunt. Sophie brought three friends from Spain […]

Sigrid SPRUYT, de enige ECHTE, nam plaats in onze kajaks voor de Deposithon. Ze bracht 16 jaar lang het nieuws iedereens huiskamer binnen en viste deze week een volle emmer afval en matras uit het water en zag twee dode eenden, één dood eendenkuikentje, een dode rat en een dode vis. Sinds lang pleit ze […]

New kids ENJOYING the warm water of the canal. Groups of friends, families, colleagues and even a Brussels soccer team. Les filles du block changed their soccer field for the canal and came to defend their colors in trash fishing. What about you FC Motivée, Daring Women or Boobie Trap?  Starting from now our Deposithon […]

SOOO many beautiful people battling against a stream of trash, with only a fishing net and a kayak. But on top of that they all bring powerfull signatures for the Deposithon, which is THE most powerfull way to really fight the trash problem. Special thanks to Klimaan and Plogging Mechelen, last Sunday they collected 225 signatures […]

What happens when you let a BIOLOGIST fish for TRASH and you forget to mention to leave all ORGANICAL MATERIAL in the WATER? He takes out everything, DEAD ANIMALS included. In the canal, where you almost see more dead animals than alive, you easily fish out 6 dead rats, 1 dead duck and 1 dead […]

This week, deputees of Brussels parlement Aurelie Czekalski and David Weytsman brought a little bit of parlement to the canal. Apart from fishing the trash out of the water and experiencing the state of the canal themselves we discussed about Miss Czekalskis Proposal of Resolution that she submitted to parlement. The proposal implies: – To study all […]

These coming days the weather will be BETTER, the sun will SHINE. Did you allready subscribe for a kayak cleanup trip in Anderlecht or Sainctelette? Maybe now is the perfect time!? These people were lucky and joined us in between rain events, fished lots of trash out of the water and delivered lots of signatures. We […]

The Deposithon is rolling, signatures are coming in, trash is cleaned up and everybody is having FUN in the mean time. Hopes are high up. These are Canal It Up pictures from the previous days. Want to join us in july or send us signatures by email? More info on: https://www.citytoocean.org/en/deposithon-en/

LUCKILY, in between rain events there is time to go kayakking for the DEPOSITHON. These last days lots of engaged groups joined the ranks. Future engineers from the Polytechnische Kring at the VUB – Vrije Universiteit Brussel, enjoying their free time after the exams, were lucky to be fishing for trash under a clear bright sun. Brusseleir […]

The Deposithon only started and our kayaks our already FLYING. These are pictures of the first two days filled with lots of pleasure, nice encounters and many steps in the right direction. @Cera brought us a visit as well to see how Canal It Up is doing. With their financial support we were able to buy […]

On Sunday Sea Shepherd Belgium swapped their big fleet of boats on the worlds OCEANS for our five kayaks on the CANAL in Brussels. Protecting the ocean can start in the middle of your city. After only TEN minutes 1 kayak came back with a bin completely filled with trash. Check their social media and […]

Saturday 19th of june we went FULL FORCE with 5 kayaks being (almost) permanently on the water! The first bits of trash were taken by Thomas and his family, who immediately found a jacket. At the same time Ciray and her daughter took care of the other side of the canal. As there were still […]

YESSSS! What a sunny day to have these three beautiful persons on the canal. All three employees of the Ville de Bruxelles and responsible for the Contrats de Renovation Urbaine. They came to enjoy the nice weather and visit one of the projects they support.  With the Contrats de Rénovation, they support projects that make […]

What better activity for a sunny Saturday in Brussels than Kayakking for a clean canal!  Koen and Estelle were the first duo to attack the floating trash in the canal! They live very close to and saw the kayaks several times, so they decided to try it out themselves. They were already well aware of […]

Vormingscentrum Molenbeek – Groep INTRO startte met varen op deze zonnige dinsdag, 4 dagen na de grote riooloverloop. Enkele jongeren kwamen zich bewust maken van het probleem in het kanaal. Sarah 15j leek niet meteen geïnteresseerd, maar eenmaal in de kayak zagen we dan toch haar echte lach en bleek dat ze uiteindelijk niet meer […]

Last Sunday the colors were more than bright. So many beautifull people joined us for a cleanup trip in the canal under a blue sky and in a brown canal. More about that brown color in another post. First Eva, Theo, Hanno and Celia each brought a sailing partner to go and fish out the […]

Lots of trash and sun, the ideal recipe for a Saturday of fishing for trash! In the morning Katti, Talita, and Pol each brought a companion to join them on the water. They all went direction Suzan Daniel bridge which is still under construction. Lots of garbage had accumulated there. Next, eight members of the […]

FRIDAY, a good day to get out on the WATER. In the morning BRUZZ came to visit. This time they didn’t come for Canal It Up, they came for a report on the canal itself. The result will soon be published here and on the Bruzz website. In the afternoon, the youth and disability care […]

Newest Kids on the block! Try Out kwam met 3 jongeren. Één van hen was wat later, bij zijn aankomst werd duidelijk waarom, hij was reeds afval aan het oprapen onderweg! De 3 gingen een goed uur varen en hebben door weer en wind, maar ook zon, afval uit het kanaal gehaald. Bravo!! SPELLETJE Ze […]

Despite heavy weather, an enthusiastic team of concerned citizens was once again proudly navigating on the troubled waters of the canal.The first volunteers to touch water were two mates from Brussels and Coventry. As relentless as captain Ahab on their tiny Pequod, they hunted the trash everywhere they could find it.The second campaign we launched […]

The youth takes over the CANAL! This Saturday, Anouk, Marianne and Elisabeth, three students from a secondary school in Dilbeek organised trips with Canal It Up for their ‘Seminaire’ course. What a great idea! They took care of registering 32 motivated friends, family and school members or even new people that heard from it through […]

Regenachtige vaardag op het KANAAL. Sorry aan diegenen van wie we geen foto’s hebben deze keer. Het zal niet meer gebeuren :). De eerste groep was een familie van 4 die op deze hemelvaart-dag goed gekleed waren om de barre weersomstandigheden te trotseren. Terwijl zij vertrokken viel het meteen op dat er veel afval lag […]

Last sunday lots of people joined us for Les fêtes de l’iris.  Sylvie and her two kids (8 and 10) got interviewed by RTL and we must say we were impressed by their well spokenness! Nathalie and her family of 4 were super motivated and all smiles! They really went to look for trash far […]

LABOR DAY, 1st of may, a perfect day to labor through the canal and gather some bins of plastic trash from the water. Nele, our future guide made everybody feel at ease.  Nathalie signed up together with Jose who is a Yacht captain. A very fun couple from Brussels and being at home on the […]

Deze dinsdag kwamen de leerlingen van het Koninklijk Atheneum Koekelberg , beter bekent als de KAK, per fiets naar onze docking zone om plaats te nemen in onze kajaks. Alessio was hun gids en legde de problemen en bijhorende oplossingen uit. Hier zijn enkele getuigenissen van Alessio en enkele leerlingen: Alessio: Waarom sta ik hier […]

Saturday, it’s Sunny, a NEW BRIDGE is being placed over the canal and New Kids are HAVING FUN kayakking while fishing the trash out of the WATER. ?‍??‍? Annelies and her sister, a happy duo and both studying to become engineers, came to see the big challenges Brussels is facing in his water management. Their […]

?‍?‍?‍? FAMILY time on the canal. Last sunday, this family of four, with two children aged 8 and 11, signed up for a kayak cleanup session. Even with the changing April weather they were SUPER motivated and smiling from ear to ear. Afterwards they came up with a creative idea for their picture, SOS, no […]

Scouts Vilvoorde Represented! ⛺️? Luckily, youngsters can still come together in small groups. These 7 girls choose cleaning up the canal as one of their activities! This summer, they hope to be able to go to Montenegro, we’re crossing our fingers for them! If not, we will be here for them on the canal under […]

The New Kids of a beautiful sunday afternoon. Erna was zeer enthusiast om het kanaal te komen schoonmaken. Ze is begaan met de natuur en starte daarom met Neat & Nature, een start-up die schoonmaakproducten en zeep maakt uit natuurlijke en reeds gebruikte producten. Ze liet ons ook weten dat ze huidig op zoek zijn […]

Green Team VUB and We.KONEKT.brussels organised a quiz game for the Brussels Water Days. 8 duos won tickets for a cleanup trip with us on the canal last monday. Under a bright shining sun they found TONS of trash in the water. On weekdays like this, more boats pass by so the lock (FR: écluse, […]

One week ago on the day of our activity for the Brussels Water Days, Greenpeace Youth Belgium came to Brussels for an afternoon of trash picking. Some of them in our kayaks on the canal, others in duos in the surrounding streets. They showed lots of enthusiasm and realised that stricter measures like a deposit […]

? Fishing Fishing Fishing, that’s what the volunteers did last Sunday. Full bins of trash. They saw with their own eyes that we have a problem, a trash problem. Mission accomplished. But now what? How to close the tap of the plastic trash that keeps coming? A deposit system for cans and plastic bottles could […]

Sad but true, but we will have to reduce the number of kayak trips due to the new measures. But Saturday 14th of March we had a whole bunch of New Kids. Marthe and her friends Lina, Jilke and Britt got to know Canal It Up for Marthes Bachelor test. They will use the trash […]

GET READY because we had a full day of HAPPY Canal It Uppers! Gislaine and Vincent were the first to brave the cold winds and gather as much plastic as they could find! They live in the neighborhood, close to the canal and were therefor very keen to do something about the ever-present pollution. Next […]

The Safety Jogger team came all the way to Brussels for a cleanup trip. They came bearing gifts with a box of reusable gloves to help us continue our activities. One of them made these beautiful pictures of their time on the water.

If Canal It Up would have been around in the year 1999, it would have looked like this. We would have taken pictures with an analoge camera to stick them in a Canal It Up family album instead of social media. The New kids on the pictures are the youngsters of Try-Out. Try-out is an […]

NEW NEW NEW kids, only with their support are we able to strive for a cleaner and greener canal and Senne. Every week, new volunteers come to the canal to do a shout out for the solutions we propose, the green islands with aquatic plants, a green mobile trash barrier to stop all the trash […]

Alors que le canal était encore gelé la semaine dernière, il faisait agréablement beau ce weekend pour une sortie en kayak. Heureusement, nous n’avons eu à déplorer aucun manque de constance de la part des New Kids qui étaient à nouveau bien présents pour la pêche aux déchets. Et cette fois-ci, les étudiants étaient de […]

❄️ ? Cold, colder, coldest. Last sunday the canal was partly FROZEN. Still, four volunteers were motivated enough to come and fish for trash in the new discipline ICE-KAYAKING. Janne, student in Art science at the VUB – Vrije Universiteit Brussel and living in Molenbeek and Kelly, student in social work in Hasselt, jumped into […]

❄️❄️❄️ ?️ Last sunday temperatures plummeted under zero and the apparent temperature was even – 6°C! We could only observe that the warm hart of the Brusseleir doesn’t cool down easily! A beautiful group of heroes put on warm clothes and got into the water. Natalie, a student in Brussel, drafted Lieven who came to […]

❄️ Even during these cold days new New kids germinate from the fertile Brussels soils to come and fish for trash in the canal. These days in the special form of bubbels of two. ? Thomas brought his roommate Fransisco and his own Pocahontas style canoe along. Fransisco works on artificial intelligence for windmills for […]

?‍♀️ The New Kids are back! The Bubble of heroes Sjur and Laura got into the water first, with a temperature of 2°C, freezing cold! Sjur comes from Norway but his perfect dutch doesn’t give him away. Together with Laura he formed a fast rowing team. So fast that they lost track of time. They […]

Saturday 24th of october, before the second ‘lockdown’, a whole group of brave people joined us for an hour of trash picking on the water. There were two groups of the American Club of Brussels, people of all ages. They allready joined us on the water before and as well during the big cleanup action […]

3 teenagers who were guided by the school. Yes, the Isb Brussels obliges these pupils to do 15 good deeds per school year! BRAVO ! Very quickly these youngsters learned the trade and with one of them I passed under the bridge of Sainctelette. By the way, I had never been there before and there […]

It was a very international cleanup day with a first multicultural team from Spain, Portugal and Mozambique. Elena, Gemma, Helena and Luis all live in Brussels and came to see the trash in the canal with their own eyes. Afterwards came Bart from Belgium and Naomi from the UK. Naomi already became a regular but […]

Samedi 3 octobre, les kayaks étaient à nouveau bien remplis! Les trois amies Laura, Margaux et Fred sont arrivées les premières. Grâce à leur bonne humeur et leur motivation, elles ont aussi bien embelli la journée que le canal! Elles se sont inscrites après être tombées sur une de nos affiches. Une amitié engagée est […]

Stormy weather for the last weekend of September. We had some cancellations, but not from these brave hearts! We started off with Maha and her group, she brought along Kenn, Maëlle and Giulio. The group after them had cancelled, so Maha and Kenn continued and explored the other side of the starting point. I almost […]

New Kids on the Block! Les canalitupiens oubliés de cet été! Gilles et Waski sont venus le jour de la fête nationale. Ce magnifique couple très amoureux ce sont décidés en dernière minute afin de venir nettoyer le canal qui était très sale ce jour de fête, je ne montrerais pas le chat mort car […]

Thursday 17th of september Rebecca surprised her friend Virginia with a trip on the canal, with a lot of excitement, laughter and shouting as a result. After their trip I nicknamed them The ZigZag Girls. Then Ann came to navigate with me. Together we discovered that it was the wind that made the girls zigzag! […]

19 and 23th of september we received 25 New Kids. Lara, William, Anke and Rocio started of this cleanup marathon, and how! After 15 min Lara and William returned with a full bin to empty it and fill it AGAIN! ? Kristin joined us for the second time and brought Marleen with her this time. […]

Samedi 5 septembre, Uli, Bertrand, Floris et Lisa ont été le premier groupe sur l’eau. Le fait de savoir que personne n’était tombé à l’eau jusque-là en a rassuré certains tandis que d’autres ont eu une petite montée de stress à l’évocation de cette possibilité. Heureusement, cela s’est avéré inutile et l’excursion s’est bien déroulée. […]

Ce vendredi, Arnaud Pinxteren, échevin de la Participation citoyenne et de la Rénovation urbaine à la Ville de Bruxelles, nous a rendu visite. Ensemble, nous sommes allés pêcher les déchets sur le canal. Dans le cadre du Contrat de Rénovation Citroën-Vergote, la Ville de Bruxelles a attribué à Canal It Up un subside afin de […]

Yesterday was a wonderful day of collective effort on and around the canal of Brussels. 225 participants spent their time cleaning up trash in the streets and in the water. We even got help from Jommeke who brought his young friends to make the day just perfect. In total, 560 kg of trash was picked […]

Le 12 septembre fut une journée merveilleusement ensoleilée à Bruxelles! Comme toujours, quand le soleil fait de son mieux, les gens aussi ! Avec Canal It Up, nous sommes sortis en nombre sur l’eau: pas moins de 19 volontaires nous ont aidé pour tenter de donner au canal la même couleur bleue du ciel. Les […]

En ce jeudi après-midi 10 septembre merveilleusement ensoleillé, Fransziska et Hanna ont navigué sur notre canal de Bruxelles. Elles étaient tellement motivées que nous n’avons réussi à sortir leur bac du kayak qu’avec beaucoup d’efforts! Elles étaient également assistées par Zeppe et Elena. Un couple très perspicace qui s’est rendu compte qu’une promenade romantique en […]

Jeudi 27 août, nous avons reçu Ann, Jules, Karina et Odilon. Les deux premiers, mère et fils, venaient de Simonis, juste à côté. Karina et Odilon d’un peu plus loin: Neder-Over-Heembeek. Armés de filets et de seaux, ils se sont attaqués aux déchets et ont réussi à les ramener en toute sécurité au quai. Juste […]

And… Canal It Up is booming ? ! Friday 4th of september we had very motivated New Kids on the canal. And they had to do some effort to find the trash, it was somewhat hiding. Britt and Marjolein, the first group, won the hide-and-seek game and found the trash hiding behind a boat. The […]

Mardi 25 août, un bon nombre de participants ont bravé l’incertitude d’une météo changeante. Le premier groupe a immédiatement souffert, exposé aux éléments météorologiques. Luka, Anna, Marieke, Payam, Nomi et Joanna sont amies depuis leur scolarité à l’institut du Sacré-Cœur de Heverlee. Ils ont rapidement mis un gigantesque morceau de tapis dans le bateau. Top […]

Today we present New Kids Eliza, Céline and Julie! Another group of long time friends who had a lot to tell each other and found a way to do that while fishing plastic in the canal. There was some teamwork involved in our fishing trip. The kayaks crossed each other in the middle, then Céline […]

Two sundays ago, a lot off courageous people came to  help us out, it was real Belgian weather as we normally know it… ⛅?️⛅?️⛅?️ The first ones, Virginie with her son Charles, were lucky… ☀️?️ Charles didn’t really like the look and the smell of the water. And he was right, we explained to him […]

Friends who Canal It Up together, stay together!A group of no less than 8 childhood friends, coronaproof divided in two groups, lent us a helping hand. With no fear whatsoever for rain and wind, especially wind, they helped us clean the canal and brightened it up with their enthousiasm. They found a fire extinguisher: one […]

Samedi fut une journée bien remplie, avec un total de 25 personnes qui ont contribué à rendre le canal plus propre. Tout a commencé avec un beau combo belge: Selina et Jill venues en train de Zonhoven, et Frédéric et Astrid venus de Charleroi. Dans une coalition belge – c’est possible – , ils ont […]

Saturday at 11 am we were already on the water with New kids Andrée, Ben and Auguste. They wanted to see the lock from up close so we peddled direction center! Once arrived there we found a small treasure, all the trash was hiding in front of the lock door. Afterwards Laura and Antoine brought […]

New kid Rodrigo already lives for a while in Molenbeek and he was wondering how he could help to make the neighbourhood cleaner. Guess who he than saw on the water of the canal? Canal It Up! Together with Esteban, who is originally from Peru and proud to be living in Brussels since 4 years, […]

Dimanche dernier fut à nouveau un jour bien rempli, 18 bénévoles magnifiques! Sergei, François, Sarah et Paul ont fait un boulot incroyable, ils ont parcouru les deux côtés du canal pour être sûr de ramasser tout. Jonah et Ine ont plutôt voulu se diriger vers le centre. Après eux, ce fut le tour de Abdil, […]

Nathalie en Maël (13 jaar), voor de gelegenheid geflankeerd door Hilde, de moeder van monitor Wouter. Maël, een fiere zeescout, kreeg bij het neerzitten in de kayak een stevige splinter in de bips. Dat belette hen niet om even later met een mooie buit huiswaarts te keren.  Met Valérie en Natasha in de ene en […]

Ce lundi après-midi, j’ai eu l’honneur d’accueillir Ilias, Marquez et Stéphane comme premier groupe. Ces 3 mecs radio et photogéniques ont rapidement formulé un slogan facile à retenir: “les rats, on prend pas – le débri, oui”.Cela pourrait bien devenir le credo du collectif ;). Puis, ce fut le tour de Sarah et Jasper. Ce […]

Le tout premier groupe que j’ai (Wouter) pu accompagner pour Canal it up, mercredi dernier, s’est tout de suite avéré être 2 talentueux pêcheurs! Niamh et Jack (6 ans), mère et fils, n’ont eu aucun mal à pêcher beaucoup de plastique, de chaussures, de papier et de mousse de polystyrène dans le canal. Ils avaient […]

Some great expeditions on the canal last week, each of them deserve a word to share! Wednesday evening of their staycation, friends-for-life Bart and Claire took up the nets to paddle with a purpose. Supercool to take them and my girlfriend Ellen on this tropical evening session. After an hour of waste hunting, we finished […]

Grâce à toute l’aide hier le canal qui était bien bien sale, l’était moins à la fin de la journée. Prêt juste avant la drache! ? #StaycationBXL  

Friday was another beautiful day on the canal. Ivana and Nathalia were the first group, these experienced volunteers had no problem navigating through our waters. Of course not, Ivana learned how to kayak on the Croatian rivers. They weren’t the only ones to help out, Melissa and Branimir collected kilo’s of trash as well. Our […]

On Tuesday Celine gave us a helping hand, she told us how kids on the Kopenhagen Ferry get a piece of candy if they spot 5 pieces of trash… that would mean a lot of candy for the Brussels youngsters! Aside from all the trash we found a lot of dead animals as well, the […]

A couple of days ago we received a small army of  New kids. Wim, Sophie and Lorenzo made the language barometer rise to unseen heights with their Dutch, French, English and Italian. Cheerfull Benoit, Valerie and art-loving Daria from Brussels showed the best steering skills we’ve seen up untill now. Unseen speeds and maneuverability in […]

The sun seemed to shine a little bit brighter today thanks to our volunteers. First Melanie, Charlotte, Caroline and Loes came to help us, a jolly group full of laughter. Their enthusiasm and teamwork were contagious for all the people looking from the streetside, they received a lot of encouragements. The fishing for plastic isn’t […]

The pleasure was ours to welcome 3 New Kids this Monday. The weather forecast announced rain, rain, rain. Since Canal It Up and the New Kids are not afraid to get wet, we did not let that stop us. Special kudos to the New Kids since they did not only clear the canal, but also […]

New Kids on the block! VUB – Vrije Universiteit Brussel , Green Team VUB Als teambuilding activiteit van het green team kon deze groep niets beter bedenken dan met ons te gaan varen! Gedreven, ondanks het wisselvallige weer, waren ze ten top! Een mini-regatta ontstond spontaan en uiteindelijk kwam de zon dan toch piepen. Wie […]

Yesterday was a fun and intense day. Het Laatste Nieuws came to write an article and Julie brought her dad with her (I am so sorry but I forgot his name (when you’ll tell me, I will say ‘aha’). Afterwards Bieke came with her friend (my memory is the worst, please tag them!). I thought […]

La semaine dernière Collin (l’homme, pas le poisson ?) nous a rejoint et il a trouvé les dauphins dans le canal incrusté dans le beton près de Comte De Flandre. Il est venu prendre la température pour peut-être revenir plus souvent. Florent, lui, a emmené et initié ses enfants dès leur plus jeune âge au […]

The whole Canal it up fleet plunged into the water on monday. In the green kajak: New kids Nona and Mathijs, originally from just outside Brussels and the heart of West Flanders. They now live and work in Brussels. With a warm evening sun in the background we paddled direction Molenbeek lock and filled the […]

The green kayak was lucky enough to welcome New kids Ana and Myriam onboard on Tuesday. They come from Macedonia and the Netherlands, both currently working at the university of Brussels and living close to the canal. They show great social commitment by following and supporting local initiatives like Pool Is Cool and Canal it […]

New kid Frank has a heart for projects with a sustainable character. Although he doesn’t like to swim in open waters, it didn’t stop him to get in a kayak for Canal it up. It was a ride with a lot of twists, paddling backwards and turning to reach the floating plastic, one of Frank’s […]

On a découvert un talent local ! Le New kid Nicolas avait vu nos kayaks depuis sont appartment au bord de l’eau. Il est venu remplir la poubelle et le kayak le lundi et il a tellement aimé qu’il est revenu le jour après. Au quotidien il est professeur français, il suit des cours de […]

We received some beautifull people in our kayaks today. And by that we’ re not only talking about our friends from Bruzz, who came to make a Staycation clip, but about the New kids on the block Kaat and Margot! Two beautifull souls who are not afraid to make their hands dirty for the good […]

Canal it up est fier de pouvoir compter Pascal Smet et son équipe parmi ses New kids on the block. Ils sont venus se frotter à l’idée Staycation eux-mêmes et ce fut une approbation mutuelle (eux pour l’idée, nous pour les new kids). Tous convaincus que Bruxelles peut devenir de plus en plus belle. Ne […]

New kids on the block Pierre et Sofie aka The Laundry Service. Aujourd’hui à nouveau notre sortie était ensoleillée. Pierre, qui est étudiant physiotherapie à Bruxelles, prétendait de ne jamais avoir navigué un kayak, on est obligé à ne pas lui croire, quel talent, un captaine est né. Sofie a en même temps donné un […]

New Kids on the block Laura et Cedric sont venus spécialement de Leuven pour pouponner notre capitale à l’occasion de la fête nationale. Des gens chaleureux qui ont à cœur le soleil, l’eau et apparemment les oiseaux ! Ils n’ont pas hésité à sauver ce pauvre malheureux. Une fois sur la terre ferme, sec et […]

New Kids on the Block! Ellen, Ines en Willem. They came especially from Mechelen to help cleaning the canal. After a short briefing and a little habituation the cleaning was remarkably fast. The drive from this gentleman and those lady’s was incredible. I had difficulty to stop them. If I didn’t say anything, I think […]

Anna, Lucrezia, Vittorio & John are the new kids on the block of this week-end!  Two charming couples that literally are from the block and saw the kayaks on the canal, so they wanted to participate and contribute to having a nicer view on the canal. They have found eclectic stuff like an old slipper […]

New Kids on the Block ! Suzanne et Émeline. Elles ont entendu parler de nous par une canalitupienne colocataire et 1 semaine plus tard se retrouvent sur l’eau. L’une vit à Bruxelles depuis 1 an et son amie, en vacances à Bruxelles, a choisi l’activité la plus cool à faire à BXL et tout ça […]

New Kids on The Block! Lotte, Hendrik, Lauren, Jell, Roman, Miedas, Nele, Amandine, Ivy, Pieter, Jana, Tristan, Frounswa, Charlotte, Michiel, Nele, Eliah, Olivia, Alessio, ils-elles y étaient tou.s.tes. Embellir le quai et le canal! Une bande de 4 sont même venu spécialement de Gand ! pour cela. C’est si beau. Les gentlemen de @Saintklet, qui […]

Last week these two new kids on the block, Estelle and Sophia (aka birdsaver lookalikes :P) came to help us out!  Exams finished, they were ready to go outside and give nature something back! (Whom I know Estelle and her sister more often do pretty actions, like selling hard shampoo at a low price (@slowly.bxl) […]

I present to you the newest kid on the block, almost litterally, Isabelle! She had already been on a kayak and done rowing on holidays, so she had the technique. Now she’s a pro for canal it up. 😉 It is good she came by because there was a lot of trash this sunday. We […]

New Kids on the block, Steven et Sander aka The Sunspecs, deux grands bonhommes indépendants dans un kayak samedi passé, gérant activement les déchets comme s’ils avaient fait ça toute leur vie ! On a de nouveau croisé une grande quantité de poissons morts de toutes tailles. Un poissonnier y aurait-il jeté son poisson invendu? […]

New kids on the block, Paul, Naomi en Laurens Aka POOL IS COOL. They made it their mission to make swimming in open air possible in Brussels. And why not in the canal in the center of Brussels. For example during weekends on certain time slots when boat traffic is suspended. Unfortunately water quality is […]

Yesterday Birdsaver went fishing with new kid on the block Farah! Aka Freddi Fish (does anyone remember the videogame?).  This nickname because we saw extremely many fish float! Does anyone know why?? On average every 5m I would say. There were more dead fish than trash! We found less trash than usual though. After an […]

New kids on the Block! Maarten, Simon, Steven en Jasper, opgegroeid in de Noordrand van Brussel, werden verliefd op deze stad door alles wat ze voor hen doorheen de jaren betekend heeft: feestjes, vrienden, studies, parken…alles wat je (zondige) jeugdjaren moeten hebben. Doorheen deze jaren zijn twee van hen er als een blok voor gevallen. […]

Birdsaver a attrapé 3 oiseaux spéciaux, Oeil de lynx et les voleurs de Slip. Elles étaient surtout ultra motivées! Elles ont répétés plusieurs fois qu’elles voulaient faire du kayak et puis demandées que c’était bien note. Nous avions plus nos petits filets, donc nous avons du être rapide avec nos mains pour attraper le plastic […]

New Kids on the block! @ Bernard Dombret, Eliah et Olivia! Ce parodontologue à l’hôpital militaire et à la dentisterie de la VUB, soigne donc la dentition du monde-entier. Il est dans une paix intérieur remarquable qui, en lui parlant, vous fait devenir plus paisible instantanément. Il est habitue à faire du plogging (ramasser des […]

New kid’s on the block! River Cleanup ?, Lauren,  Louis, Steve, Stan, Hugo, Tine, Jasper, Eliah, Olivia, Kevin, Diana, Sebcat, Chloé, Fanchon, Térence, Irène, vriendjes van vriendjes, de VTM!, de VRT!, passanten, vreemde vrijwilligers, curiezeneuzen, de zon, the black lives matter, water matters, consciousness matters! Hopla, sometimes images make matters…PEACE!  et un merci mignon à […]

Old kid on the block Oscar shows the way to New kid on the block, Penelope aka Pop aka the intellectual jurist.Pop is originally from France but has been living the Brussels life for a few years now. She works for a law firm specialized in intellectual property and, dedicated as she is, immediately offered […]

New Kids on the block! Par où commencer? Dr. Chloé Grossen, Simon Delchambre et Nicolas Heydt + un vrai canalitup-IEN indépendant  Louis Lammertyn, ce jeune homme vient nous rejoindre souvent désormais. Vous risquez de le voir arriver avec son propre kayak sur la tête ! Dr Chloé qui après 13 ans d’étude pour soigner […]

Newest Kid on the Block, Djo, aka Prepared. He arrived with injuries from a long bicycle trip the day before, but had his usual smile on, he brought breakfast and had his own gloves to protect his injuries from infection.  We saw a woman getting out of the canal, she had fallen in it and […]

New Kid on the block! Tic et Tac (knabbel en Babbel), to the rescue van het kanaal waren reeds canalitupsters toen ze aankwamen, zonder dit te beseffen uiteraard. Schminkster en danseres levende in Brüssel. Ze hebben het kanaal onder handen genomen zoals het hoort. De muren kwamen in het begin dicht bij hun kajak, maar […]

New Kid on the block, HUGO! When he was young, he used to kayak on the rivers of Alsace. The death little chick, rats and pigeons also hits his childhood eyes. Pure honesty of this guy who is writing a book about memory. It was a moment of appeasement on the largest part of the […]

Le New Kid on the Block Louis, aka le Globe Kayakeur, est venu muni de son propre kayak! Ensemble avec entre-temps valeur sure Oscar, The Writer, et Lauren, Bird Saver, nous étions donc 2 kayaks à l’eau, doublement efficace à la chasse au plastic! Louis a acheté son kayak en Colombie et continue a en […]

New Kid on the block ! Stan, brusseleir aux multiples facettes. Travaille dans les assurances, mix de la musique et se forme en tant qu’artiste graphiste. Après nous avoir aidés avec la création de notre 1er logo, il s’engage à nous aider pour les événements futurs. Après quelques minutes d’adaptation, il a très vite eu […]

Eliah, évidemment que se garçon de 8 ans veux venir avec sur l’eau. Le prix : il aperçoit une vingtaine de rats mort et une quantité énorme de déchets flottant sur l’eau (en route pour la mer). Le canal et sale papa et pue. Ben oui, c’est pour ça qu’on est là, bonhomme. On veut […]

Latergram of last week-end when we thaught only going with two in a kayak was ok.   At least there is one positive point about this whole situation and that is the ecological impact it has on mostly CO2 emission and also trash that is thrown out in the wilderness.  Everybody who can  is at home […]

Aaand we are back! Presenting new kids on the block Fien and Oan a.k.a. The New Refreshing Movie Directors! They have studied film in Brussels and are headstarting their careers. We just had 3 consecutive stormy week-ends. After Ciara, Dennis and George there was still some wind on saturday, but at least the sun appeared […]

New kid on the block, Cedric aka Yes Man. No adventure is too strange for him. He has an ability of openess for new people and new experiences that makes him the man with no fears. He studied in Brussels and Paris, worked in Belgium Egypt, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Indonesia and went to South […]

Do you know what diatoms are? These are brown-yellow microscopic algae with a siliceous hull, you can find them in every body of water. We collected these algae on two spots of the Canal and they were analysed by the Belgian Algae expert Louis Leclercq to determine the biological quality of the water. 74 different […]

New kid on the block, Liesbeth aka The Smiling Soul aka Euphrosyne. Nobody can resist her everlasting smile. She cycled through Europe, goes climbing whenever she can and loves dancing with all her heart, head, arms, legs and feet. She’s so consistent that sometimes things get mixed up and she ends up climbing the walls […]

New kid on the block, Tassilo aka The Poet. Growing up in and around Brussels and some Italian roots made him a quadrilingual person. He takes it up with live with enthusiasm as if he was drenched in it like Obelix was in the magic potion. With some friends he will build already the second […]

New kid on the block, Pierre aka The Semi Anonymous Hero. Lives in a world without social media, spends his time off high in the mountains and changes the Brussels landscape working in remote dusty offices off the grid. He agreed to come out of the dark to use his super-human strengths to help clean […]

New kid on the block, Virginie aka Captain Elevator. Born in France and brought to Brussels by love. She likes challenges like running marathons and besides being awesome she’s just a wonderful happy person. Even though it is getting much colder we went fishing for trash in the canal. Watching the water from the side […]

New kids on the block, Karen aka The Reader, she can read a book in one day while giving a guided tour in town, Cosme aka The Physicist and last but not least Marianne aka The Naturalist aka The Mom aka It’s Her Birthday ?. Together they came fishing for plastic in the canal, and […]

New kid on the block, Joanna aka The Yogini, invited by New kid Vanessa. Born in Poland she went to England for a 3 year PhD and arrived in Brussels 8 years ago to work here. Together they got out there to go and fish for plastic in the canal. The water was fairly clean […]

New kids on the block, Youssef aka The Boss, Carl aka The Double Agent and Vincenzo aka The Courageous One. Together they form a team that builds a school for the children of Molenbeek. In the rain we went fishing for plastic in the canal, with two canoes, double capacity. Two of us were Suited […]

New kid on the block, Beranger aka Iron Man, a man of real power, he can build a house with one hand while the other is making everything his imagination asks him to. Together we got out on the rough waters of the Canal, a lot of wind and waves as if we were at […]

Lauren presents The New kid on the block, Oscar aka The Writer,  goes by the captain-of-the-ship mentality, yelling ‘there is something!’ whilst pointing. Even though we were surrounded by trash the whole time! We barely had to paddle, the trash was never far away. We found a white marker in the water, amazingly enough still […]

New kid on the block, Jan aka Jean The Brusseleir, The philosopher. A real Ket from Brussels, friendly with everybody and helpful to everybody. He already crossed the biggest part of Europe on his bicycle, and is not planning to stop there. The future in his mind looks different than what the world looks like […]

New action on the block, World Cleanup Day, Lauren aka The Birdsaver came to help out to do our part in this world wide action. Before getting into the water we got a little guided tour in the Ocean Plastics Lab exposition. Once in the water we got many encouragements from people on the side. […]

New kids on the block, Andreas, Anke and Laura aka The Helicopter Rowers. They brought their own canoe to double our fleet and it’s a first, expansion is in the air. It started out like turning circles in the water but after we attached both canoes one to the other, operation fishing for plastic got […]

New kid on the block, Luana aka The Radiomaker. Made in Brussels she lives and works here and above all loves her city. Being native Dutch speaking persons in Brussels connections are never far away. It took us 10 minutes of rowing to find out we went to the same elementary and secondary school. Afterwards […]

New kids on the block, Benjamine and Cindy aka The Elegance Dancers. Benjamine was born in France and Cindy in Flanders, both big shot dancers in Brussels they met on the dancefloor and became friends. With the same swing from the dancefloor they came to help us out by fishing plastic out of the canal. […]

New kid on the block Alessio presents his son Eliah aka The Super Kid, a Ket from Brussels raised in both French and Dutch. Today his father taught him how to go fishing for plastic in the canal, but more important that the plastic shouldn’t be in the water in the first place. Elia was […]

New kid on the block, Fanny aka The Warrior, born in Arlon, living in Brussels and fighting for a better world. As member of Gracq St Josse she’s trying to pave the way to a more bicycle friendly commune. Professionally she’s working on Co2 emission reduction on a big scale. And at home there’s no […]

New kid on the block, Rosie aka The Real Kid, she is a primary school journalist for Karrewiet, the Dutch News broadcast for children. While asking questions about the ‘Canal it up’ project she was genuinely having fun fishing for plastic in the water. Seems to be that we went to the same primary school. […]

New kid Véronique presents New kid on the block Adrien aka The Professional Backpack Weight Reducer. Slightly knowing each other from home, they met in New Zealand 9 months ago. 2 months later, after 1 year in New Zealand for her and 2 months for him, coincidence put them in Thailand on the same plane […]

New kids on the block, Cecilia aka The Roommate and Benoit aka The Climber, they fell in love in Brussels almost 3 years ago. They share a love for travel and discovery, so they where immediately on board to go for a trip on the canal to fish for plastic. It became an evening session […]

New kid on the block, Elisabeth aka Pocahontrash, a creative girl flown into Brussels from Flanders. Tell her where you live and she will tell you what kind of trees there are in your street. She loves her city and is always ready to help and make it an ever nicer place to live. When […]

New Kids on the block, Ellen aka Mystery girl and Koen aka The Bicycle boy. There are in love already for 6 years. Ellen grew up in Limburg and Koen in Machelen just next to Brussels. Still, they found each other. The person to take credit for their coming together is still under discussion. Today […]

Lauren presents the New kid on the block, Alessio, aka De Lasso, because he catches every piece of plastic he encounters on his path with his very fast reflexes! Ok, we also turned around in little circles when the piece of plastic was just out of reach. ☺ His life is build up of all […]

New kid on the block Lauren takes over and presents the Newest kid on the block, Katrien aka Motivé! Not only because she plays in the football team FC Motivé, but mostly because she always goes for it! A girl from Ukkel, Brussels, went up to Bruges to share her interest and knowledge in psychology, […]

New kid on the block, Vanessa aka Vanessito aka The Cook, once she invites you for diner at her place, you’ll make sure to invite yourself next time for more of her delicious food. Born in Ecuador, she came to Belgium 10 years ago. Since then she learnt French, became an osteopath, started her own […]

New kid on the block, Johan aka The Doctor, some call him the Michael Jordan of the doctors, he became a proud father for the first time only 3 weeks ago. Another real deal bilingual Brussels person, and is it coincidence that he too is a Birdsaver? While looking for plastic in the canal we […]

New kid on the block, Mamie aka The Tree Climber, a girl that dances with so much enthusiasm she fills the dance floor in no time. Profession: Aerial silks and Tree climbing, her way to translate her connection to nature to other people through workshops. Fears: None, she climbes mountains, swims in ice water and […]

New kid on the block, Lauren aka The Birdsaver aka Rockstar In The Making, a girl from Brussels – the real deal, speaking perfectly Dutch and French. Not afraid to get dirty hands. Friday she tried to save a bird, and again yesterday in the canal a sick paralyzed pigeon floating in the water surrounded […]

New kid on the block, Benny aka The Minister, also The Dad. Specialties of the day: road sign, scooter helmet and two footballs. The objective is to go on the canal at least once a week during the summer months, this week we went fishing trash twice. Let me know if you want to join […]

New kid on the block, Véronique aka The Woofer, back from 1 year New Zealand, she soon starts research in using robots in organical agriculture. They say she’s that much into nature that when she wakes up too early in the morning she goes to read a book on a pile of manure. Today it […]

New kid on the block, Mona aka The Energizer, able to make people do stuff they weren’t supposed to do, she cycles to work everyday and eats plastic for breakfast, lunch and dinner just to make it go away. But not the plastic we collected in the canal yesterday, way to go for a clean […]

New kid on the block, Cécile aka The Dressmaker, insists on putting a bucket under the shower while waiting for hot water. Also the woman who follows me in all my crazy plans. Today we had to stop collecting plastic sooner than we wanted, the bin was filled in no time.  #beatplasticpollution #actionaroundthecorner #titaniclovewithatrashbininthemiddle

New kid on the block, Daan aka ‘The Champion’, always looking for ways to live more earthfriendly. Fishing trash out of the water today we met à turtle 30 cm big swimming in the canal, surprise of the day. #beatplasticpollution #actionaroundthecorner #2ndday

First day of fishing trash out of the canal, 15 kg of plastic!! Let us know if you want to join next time. #beatplasticpollution, #Sainctelette, #actionaroundthecorner