A PROFESSIONAL adventurer is set to focus his next expedition in Yorkshire, when he will climb onboard a waterbike and help remove litter from the waterways, as part of a national campaign.

Matt Kettlewell, from Askrigg in Wensleydale, will be taking part in a bid to remove one million pieces of litter from England’s waterways this weekend.

The initiative is run by the Say Yes More movement, a non-profit social enterprise run by volunteers which encourages adventurous thinking, face-to-face community activity and community events.

The organisation's Waterbike Collective involves volunteers signing up for a leg of a 1,000-mile relay around England's canals and rivers on a floating bicycle, picking rubbish from the water as they go.

So far, the campaign has collected in excess of 37,000 pieces of litter.

Matt will be cycling on the aquatic bike between Leeds and Bingley this Sunday.

“Anyone can join the litter pick on the day – you can take part in your own litter pick and add to the tally,” he said.

“People can stage their litter pick anywhere and then log on to the waterbike website and log the plastic collected.”

The specially-made aquatic bicycle, called a Schiller Bike waterbike, floats on pontoons and contains a platform for rubbish collection.

As the waterbike passes through different cities and counties, local clean-up initiatives and youth groups will join the project and help reach the target. They can input their results on the website sayyesmore.com/waterbikecollective/

Matt works as an expedition leader and adventurer, leading tourists and school groups on outdoor adventure trips to destinations including Asia, Africa, Europe, and central America.

He is also a GetOutside champion, along with other champions including Ben Fogle. The GetOutside campaign is run by the Ordnance Survey and encourages people to explore the outdoors and have adventures.

Although the waterbike won’t be travelling through the Yorkshire Dales, Matt said plastic and other rubbish in the dales’ rivers and streams was still an issue.

“Plastic rubbish all ends up in the watercourses, but we’re not as aware of it in the Yorkshire Dales; we don’t see it as a problem," he said.

“You hear most about plastic rubbish at sea, but it impacts inland as well. I’m trying to highlight the issue of our rubbish in the dales getting into the watercourses, which also ends up in the sea.”