The River Lea, peppered with canal boats jostling against the banks, is almost completely still. As I round a bend, I spot two ducks nestled in the grass, pecking at the remanence of a plastic bag. Out on the water, I see a coot sitting atop a nest loaded with plastic fragments in a kaleidoscope of colours.

“I had a love/hate relationship with the waterways. I felt so peaceful when out paddling, but I just couldn’t ignore all the litter,” says Lizzie Carr, paddle boarder and founder of environmental NPO Planet Patrol.

“The problem is magnified when you’re right next to it on the water. I saw little chicks eating plastic and building nests out of it. I thought: “What is going on here, why is nobody talking about this? This isn’t allowed, this isn’t acceptable.”

I’ve joined Lizzie for an afternoon of paddle boarding through the Hackney Marshes in London and I can empathise with her frustration. Every tranquil snapshot is marred by rubbish. Looking down past my paddle I see a traffic cone, a bicycle, a shopping trolley and numerous plastic bottles mottled with algae.

Lizzie first tried paddle boarding in the Isle of Scilly, while in remission for stage two thyroid cancer. Something that started as a gentle hobby snowballed into a passion that was continually interrupted by plastic pollution. Despite returning to work early in her recovery, she quit to find space and to figure out a new path.