55 enthusiastic volunteers enjoyed the spring sunshine on 22 April — Earth Day 2018 — as they returned to the River Rhymney to remove plastics and other waste from its banks. And it was lovely to see lots of new faces yet again!
The volunteers spent 2 hours collecting 1.5 tonnes of waste, plus 30 bags of marine plastic.
What made it much more tricky were the thousands of pieces of polystyrene that littered the entire area. Volunteers had to sit down to painstakingly pick up each piece individually!
They collected the usual array of plastic, plus tyres, numerous footballs, a shop chiller cabinet, various gas bottles, traffic cones, wooden panels and even a seesaw! We also found nurdles (lentil-sized pieces of plastic that are used to make larger plastic products) amongst it all.
We were delighted to see lots of native wildlife, including a little water vole who came out to say hello!
Louise Tambini, group member said,
“Today I was delighted to see my first water vole in the wild. It was a great reminder why it is so important to keep our green spaces litter-free.”
Committee member, Dave King said,
“Inspiring to see over 50 people, particularly our younger volunteers, giving up their Sunday morning to make such a huge difference to the riverbank. By removing such a large amount of waste, and so many small pieces of polystyrene, we know that we prevented this plastic from getting into the sea and therefore into the marine food chain. Everyone who took part should be very proud of themselves!”
All waste was collected by Cardiff Council. And the marine plastic will be recycled by Terracycle, as part of their Beach Plastic Recycling Programme.
Lots more photos can be seen on our Flickr page.
And there’s a time-lapse video of all the volunteers making a huge difference.
It was a great morning’s work — many thanks to everyone who helped out!