The River Dredgers in Oslo (Rusken) started in Akerselva in 2017 and has since been extended to Alnaelva. The goal of the clean-up actions is to prevent waste in the rivers ending up in the Oslofjord, where it is much more difficult to clean it up.
This spring, things became frantic when a volunteer pulled up an undermined grenade out of the river. A photographer from the prestigious magazine Monocle, being there to report from the renovation action, drops his camera and calls the police. Soon, the bomb squad is getting involved.
Thankfully, these kind of finds are rare for the Rusken voluntarily picking crew. The annual cleaning operation is carried out in early summer in collaboration with students from the Norwegian University of the Environment and Life Sciences, the Church’s city mission, Friends of Akerselva, Oslo River Forum, Oslomarka’s Fisheries Administration (OFA), the Urban Environment Agency and the Urban Environment Agency’s contractors for the area.
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Related: Oslo – A Pioneer in Green Transport Solutions
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Rusken is a community action project to clean up streets, rivers, beaches and parks in Oslo and started in 2011. It involves kindergartens, schools, housing cooperatives, voluntary organizations, sports clubs, the business community and the general public. It emphasizes joint community action, shared responsibility and the breaking down of social divisions.
The orange-clad picking members make their way up and down the Oslo’s Akerselva river in boats or on foot along the banks, the usual suspects emerge, plastic containers, glass bottles, cigarette butts, poches of snus tobacco, the occasional rusted road sign, and the obligatory electric scooter.
This year, the scavengers walked around the base, and a little way down and up the river. NCC provided a barge and picked up waste from the river which was loaded onto the boat. In addition, Mad Goats had kayaks and packrafts so that volunteers could pick up rubbish in the river from a boat. Around 50 cleaners were in action this day. Rusken is Oslo municipality’s initiative for a clean, tidy and pleasant city. The background for the River Dredgers initiative is linked to the international commitment against plastic pollution in the sea, which really arose in 2017, after several terminally ill whales were found with stomachs full of plastic.
“This city has been very lucky,” says Jenny Krohn, whose official title is “Rusken general”. “We have been bringing people together to keep Oslo clean since 1976.”
Krohn has only two full-time employees, plus three hired seasonally. ”The trick is to make yourself look bigger than you are,” smiles Krohn.
The River Dredgers in Oslo, written by Tor Kjolberg