Category Archives: Plymouth Great Wood

Plymouth Great Wood, Ely (21 August 2021)

23 brave volunteers from Cardiff Rivers Group and Caerau & Ely Pickers spent the morning in an absolute downpour, wading through dripping wet woodland for a litter-pick.

Together they collected 55 bags of rubbish (mainly the usual cans & plastic bottles), an OVO Nextbike, a very old shopping trolley and a lot of dumped carpet, plus miscellaneous other fly-tipped garbage.

There was also quite a lot of metal items collected, which will be weighed in as scrap for recycling.

Our thanks to Cardiff Council for collecting and disposing of all the rubbish collected.

Litter heroes, every one!

Event 150! River Ely & Plymouth Great Wood (30 July 2017)

37 volunteers, including Darth Wader, (doing some good, for a change) ventured to Ely on Sunday 30 July to remove tonnes of fly-tipping and other waste from Plymouth Great Wood and the River Ely.

The team removed 3 van loads of waste from the area in just under 2 hours.

Bags of rubbish and several tyres

They collected over 120 bags of rubbish, plus traffic cones, furniture, numerous tyres, bikes,  dozens of large sheets of polystyrene, childrens’ toys, several used nappies (ugh!), TVs, a fridge and freezer, a motorbike, and even a giant cuddly bear (that’s the one on the left, below).

Various items of household rubbish including a giant teddy bear

Group member Louise Tambini said:

“What a fantastic turnout for a Sunday morning! It is great to see that volunteers care enough about the environment of Cardiff to come and pick up waste that other people have so carelessly discarded.

“This woodland location could be a fantastic habitat for wildlife but it is being blighted by some irresponsible local people who are using it as a rubbish dump.

“We have made a big improvement today, which I hope locals appreciate. I also hope they change their habits and start to dispose of their waste correctly, so that the wildlife will not be at risk from future dumping”.

It was great to see many new faces join the happy bunch today. The event was being filmed for a BBC documentary, so a number of volunteers dressed up for the occasion, and the Masked Avenger also joined in the fun!

A BBC crew filming CRG

Many thanks to Cardiff Council, who took all the waste away incredibly quickly, and to Park Ranger Richie Roberts, who got stuck in with the gang and provided health & safety support to Darth Wader and the river crew.

Thankfully the weather was (mostly) kind, and volunteers were able to enjoy some well-earned refreshment afterwards!

CRG volunteers at the pub after the event

More photos from the event are on our Flickr page.

Why not come along to one of our future events and help to make a DIFFerence!