Disposable barbecues, a Barbie t-shirt, and a decaying JLS water bottle were among the items pulled from Bartley Water by volunteers at the weekend.
Around 30 people on paddle boards took to the water in a big clean-up effort on Saturday as part of a national campaign by Paddle UK.
Dozens of buckets were filled, with waste amply collected by volunteers by Eling Tide Mill.
Sports retailer Decathlon backed the campaign alongside Planet Patrol and rented out equipment for the waste warriors.
Lizzie Carr, founder of Planet Patrol, was among those out on the water.
She said there are an abundance of reasons as to why events like this are so important.
Lizzie said: “They are a great way to empower communities to take meaningful action, and this really helps us to understand the big problems.
“Going out on the water and litter picking is a great activity and by recording what is found, we can see big changes.
“By getting out on the water and experiencing the problems, you can see that everything is magnified.
“To the naked eye, Eling looked really clean, but when you start looking out on the water, that is when you start uncovering the litter.
“The problem exists everywhere.”
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After an hour on the water, volunteers – who could take part in a morning and afternoon session – brought their buckets full of rubbish back to shore.
These were then transferred to large bin bags and collected by Totton and Eling Council if classed as general waste.
Other items recovered from the water included plastic offcuts, reusable water bottles, and vehicle tyres.
Becky Lillico, project manager for the sustainability section of Decathlon, said: “There are some scary things out there in the water currently, so we are cleaning, picking up litter, and testing the water quality.
“Each person has a bucket to fill with rubbish. This morning, about seven of them were completely full.
“We are a sport retailer, and to make sport accessible we believe it is important our playground – in this case the water – is safe.
“It’s important the water is of good quality and it is not full of litter that is harming species, which is then contributing to climate change.
“Climate change is not going away and there are things we can do that can help change the world.”
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