Fly tipping and litter is a big issue in rural South Wales, however, during lockdown there has been a significant rise in the amount of rubbish in my local area. Not only is it an eye sore and spoils the beautiful welsh countryside, it also poses a risk to our local wildlife. Ultimately, rubbish (particularly plastic) disregarded in the environment will eventually breakdown and become embedded in the soil or be washed away into rivers and streams polluting our waterways and ocean (around 80% or marine rubbish coming from the land), injuring and killing wildlife. It is estimated that there are 15-51 TRILLION pieces of plastic already in the worlds ocean, with 40% of the oceans surface made up of floating plastic. Over 700 marine species are known to have been killed by plastic pollution either through ingestion or entanglement. Rubbish left to breakdown on the land can release harmful chemicals into the surrounding soil, producing chemical as well as physical pollution. These chemicals can seep into the surrounding ecosystem and into groundwater with potentially toxic properties, harming organisms.
In short, a great way to reduce the damaging effects of litter is to do a litter pick. This can be on your own (whilst ensuring you are being safe and sensible) or as part of an organised group. As part of ‘Autumn Clean Cymru’ run by ‘Keep Wales Tidy’, my father and I organised a litter pick in our local fly tipping hotspot. Along with a few volunteers (whilst implementing social distancing measures of course!) we set ourselves the task of cleaning up the general litter as well as tidy up the numerous spots of fly tipping to make it more accessible for the council to collect (all of the fly tipping has previously been reported and has since accumulated but we are still waiting for our local council to take action!!).
Before and after of the re-collection of New Years clean up (plus the addition of fresh rubbish dumped on top)
Over the morning we collected over 30 bags of rubbish. In one location we re-collected the rubbish that had fallen out of split bags that we had collected New Year day which are still awaiting collection…! Among the usual household waste and an enormous amount of fast food packages we also retrieved a washing machine, an old microwave and the remains of a caravan. It was a successful morning of hard work and although we did the best we could it is always disheartening to see the fly tipping that we simply didn’t have the equipment and resources to move and I have little faith the council will act any time soon.
Just a glimpse of the vast amount of fly tipping (which was reported months ago but more is added all the time)
It is a relentless battle against those dumping large quantities of rubbish and individuals that throw their empty food packages out of their car windows and it can be quite disheartening. Every time I walk up to Machen Common, I feel very angry and sad that people think it is acceptable to treat the environment this way. Luckily for us people are sometimes stupid enough to dump delivery packages and paperwork with their address on which we find and report to the police. We have been informed that at least one person has been prosecuted for fly-tipping, the environment is slowly getting the justice it deserves.
Some of the lovely views from Machen
I feel a good sense of achievement with what we accomplished and no doubt we’ll be doing the same again in a few weeks’ time! Some of our volunteers were lucky enough to spot a baby adder and we also spotted an old peregrine nest, a reminder of the wildlife we were working to protect.
Sources:
https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/the-plastic-problem-how-does-plastic-pollution-affect-wildlife
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil#:~:text=Chlorinated%20plastic%20can%20release%20harmful,species%20that%20drink%20the%20water.