35 enthusiastic volunteers from Cardiff Rivers Group spent the morning of Saturday 12th May clearing loads of waste from Parc Tredelerch, off Lamby Way. Happily, the sun shone on the volunteers, who enjoyed visiting this lovely park.

They scoured the long grass, bushes and riverbank to collect 27 bags of rigid plastic (which will be recycled by Terracycle), 55 bags of general waste, a toilet, a tyre, a rubber duck, and even a rather sinister-looking makeshift weapon!

The team also discovered an incredible amount of stripped cabling — both the outer plastic insulation and the steel-wire ‘armouring’, left over after thieves removed the valuable copper core — which had been dumped over the flyover onto the riverbank below. The volunteers then rose to the challenge task of dragging the estimated half-a-tonne of steel-wire about 150m to the collection point, so it could be taken for recycling.
 Jon Wallis, group member,  said, “Parc Tredelerch was created on top of an old landfill site, and it’s a real shame that what is now a beautiful place is being blighted by new rubbish being thoughtlessly dropped all over it. Thankfully, there are lots of dedicated people who regularly come out and volunteer with us, and who can be proud of making a real difference to the natural environment in-and-around Cardiff.”

All waste that can’t be processed by Terracycle, or scrapped via European Metal Recycling, will be collected by Cardiff Council.

There are lots more photos on our Flickr page.

And there’s another timelapse video showing the CRG volunteers in action!

Cardiff Rivers Group’s next event is on Saturday 19th May, when the team will head to Cardiff Bay Barrage for a clean up, ready for when the Volvo Ocean Race arrives on 27th May.