Category Archives: Event Review

Fairwater Park (9 September 2023)

Around 20 volunteers tackled Fairwater Park, litter-picking the paths, fields and woodland, and clearing rubbish — including the almost-inevitable nextbike — from as much of the stream they could access (which wasn’t a lot, given how overgrown it’s become in recent years).

The woodland areas clearly provide numerous secluded venues for various activities — primarily eating and drinking, based on the litter collected, but also other pursuits, given the items of underwear, condom wrappers and pregnancy test sticks (five!) that were also found.

The final haul was 33 bags of miscellaneous rubbish, plus the usual assorted larger items, including three traffic cones, bits of a moped fairing, a wicker chair, part of a strimmer and a garden rake.

And another 185 NOx canisters were made safe for recycling — that’s over 500 processed in just the last 4 days!

More photos on Flickr.

Fairwater Leisure Centre (6 September 2023)

22 volunteers spent the morning clearing litter and other rubbish from the fields, woodland and stream at Fairwater leisure centre.

Aside from filling around 40 bags with the usual assorted litter, they also retrieved a nextbike and a pizza-delivery moped from the stream — the latter needing several people to haul it out of the silt and up a very muddy bank.

In addition to the litter-pick, another 230 NOx canisters were made safe for recycling as scrap metal.

And one of our volunteers, Alan, made someone very happy when he reunited them with their van keys, which they’d lost earlier in the morning.

More photos on Flickr.

Ogmore River Clean (29 August 2023)

About a dozen CRG volunteers took part in the Ogmore River Clean today — an absolutely massive event, superbly co-ordinated by Alun Phillips, which involved a huge number of organisations, including Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Water, Keep Wales Tidy, Trolleywise, Captain Paul Watson Foundation, South Wales Fire & Rescue Service, Merthyr Mawr Women’s Institute, Creigiau Tyres, Vale of Glamorgan Council and Bridgend County Borough Council.

The main aim was to remove thousands of tyres from the river bed Excavators from NRW dug the tyres out of the river and moved them to the edge of the water.

They were then cleared of silt and stones, and taken up to the river bank and piled-up, ready for loading onto trailers. The trailers were then moved up to the road, where the tyres were loaded into vans, to be taken away for proper disposal.

Hats off to everyone who took part, in whatever capacity!


ITV News
video & article – “2,000 tyres removed from river in major clean-up operation of polluted river

BBC News article – “Ogmore: 2,000 tyres, 100 trolleys and fridge fished out of river

And lots more photos on CRG’s Flickr  and KWT’s Flickr.

Llandaff Weir (26 August 2023)

Around 25 volunteers (including some welcome new faces) tackled a sunny Llandaff Weir this morning, some in the water, and others along the riverside footpaths and grassy areas.

We definitely shouldn’t complain, but with “only” 25 bags collected, there seemed to be a lot less litter than we’ve seen on previous occasions — so much less, in fact, that we actually finished early, which is a very rare occurrence!

That said, the islands below the weir were much more overgrown than they’ve been before, to the point of being inaccessible, so there’s probably still some stuff hidden on them. We’ll find out if we manage to get back there when the vegetation has died down somewhat.


Many thanks to Kubota driver William, from Cardiff Council, for picking up bags and miscellaneous items, and ferrying them to where they could be collected for disposal. And many thanks to Benjamin, also from the Council, for picking it all up so promptly!


As usual, there was some metal scrap (although not as much as Dave might have liked!) and a number of people brought NOx canisters for processing and recycling.


Thanks to Llandaff Rowing Club for letting us use their car park.

More photos on Flickr.

 

Splott Beach (13 August 2023)

The rain stopped, it stayed dry, and there was even some sunshine for the 17 volunteers who tackled Splott ‘beach’ this morning.

The beach gave up its usual bounty of leftovers from burned-and-stripped cable — lots of steel wire ‘armour’ on this occasion, the thieves contenting themselves with the far more valuable copper — plus 25 bags of windblown and washed-up litter, and, for some reason, a glass oven door.

There was also a large (25 litre) container, still mostly full, of ‘thinners’, which had either been dumped for convenience or (more likely) used as fuel to burn the cable.

In addition to the litter-pick, almost 300 NOx canisters, brought along by various people, were processed for recycling, and 28 wheels from written-off nextbikes were dismantled to maximise their scrap value.

Thanks to everyone who came along!

Radyr Weir (29 July 2023)

41 volunteers tackled the area around Radyr Weir this morning — up and down the Taff Trail, around Longwood Drive and along the Melingriffith feeder.

A passer-by even commented that it seemed like there was an “invasion of litter-pickers”!

They collected 56 bags of rubbish, miscellaneous larger items, and assorted scrap metal. Plus another 73 NOx canisters made safe for recycling.

 

Pontygwindy Road, Caerphilly (26 July 2023)

14 volunteers tackled some horrendous littering in a small stream that flows into the Nant Yr Aber, by Asda on Pontygwindy Road, Caerphilly.

The stream is in a wooded area, with a clearing that’s obviously used as a drinking den.  And rather than take their litter to the nearby bins, the participants just chuck it all into the stream.

As a result, this morning’s haul was a ridiculous 81 bags of general rubbish — mainly glass & plastic bottles and drinks cans — plus two tyres, a safe (empty), a duvet and a traffic cone.

And we were honoured that regular volunteer Marianne chose to celebrate her birthday by coming along to this event!

Plymouth Great Wood, Ely (16 July 2023)

Cardiff Rivers Group were not deterred by the torrential downpours as they cleaned up the woodlands and green spaces of Ely.

30 volunteers were joined by Cardiff Council staff on a soggy Saturday. Together they collected 40 bags of rubbish, 2 trolleys, 2 bikes, various large flytipped items of waste and a trailer full of scrap metal from Plymouth Great Wood.

The team also processed 116 NOS canisters (collected by volunteers from various parts of Cardiff) so they can be recycled.

More photos on Flickr.