More than 1,000 volunteers have broken a Guinness world record for the most people participating in a coordinated river clean-up.
The event took place across seven locations including Brecon and Pontypridd. At Cardiff Bay alone, there were more than 200 people participating.
Event organiser Kate Strong said the litter-pick took more than a year to organise. “I have not done any other work for the last six months. I’m a volunteer for this, so I don’t get paid.”
Kate was born in Pontypridd and said “I love the river Taff, it’s very close to my heart.” She often cycles by the river and had been noticing the build up of litter which inspired her to start the initiative.
For Kate this is a chance “to give back to a country and a community I love.”
Whilst the chance to break a record was important, volunteers were keen to make a more lasting difference.
Freshwater scientist, Dr Numair Masud, said “We need to leave a legacy. We can’t be short term.”
He explained that after the clean-up, he is going to work with Cardiff University to do a litter analysis. He wants to look into how their project has impacted people’s behaviour, and to see which companies are most associated with the rubbish they’ve been finding.
Dr. Masud said “freshwater habitats are being lost at a higher rate than all other habitats on the planet, and it is our responsibility to save them.”
He remains optimistic, and told CJS news “historically, the River Taff was considered ecologically dead, and that’s changed, so the improvement can happen.”
Dr. Masud wasn’t the only one looking to leave a permanent impact. A number of Welsh Youth Climate Ambassadors were helping with the scheme, and promoting their Senedd petition to tackle flooding and river pollution.
Volunteer Arthur said the litter-pick was a chance to create community around environmental action. He said it’s “hopefully an opportunity to share what we’re doing with with people a bit wider around Cardiff and around Wales.”
His colleague Lilliana said “I think we forget that, especially in a city, we do have some amazing wildlife and natural spaces.” She said events like this, encouraging people to protect and care for the environment, are so important.
Whilst the atmosphere was optimistic, volunteers were keen to stress that events like this aren’t enough to tackle litter and river pollution.
Dave King from Cardiff Rivers Group explained because the bay area is at the end of the Taff, “the current just brings all of the rubbish into the bay and into this corner. So, in two weeks time it could be as bad as what we’ve just seen if there’s a storm.”
The leader of the Welsh Green party, Anthony Slaughter, told CJS news events like this give “communities a sense of agency, they’re taking control over something that isn’t acceptable”
But he stressed that “ultimately this needs tackling at the root cause. It needs sufficient investment from day one. It should never have got to this stage”
The Welsh government responded: “Improved water quality is vital to making Wales a prosperous, happy, and healthy place to live and visit. The pressures on our water supplies and infrastructure are unprecedented which is why we are making the safeguarding of our water environment a priority.
“A wide-ranging, independent review of policy and regulation in the water sector is underway and will report to both Welsh Government and Defra later this year. “We will continue working closely with partners in UK Government and across the water sector to realise our shared goals of a cleaner and more environmentally responsible Wales – for us, and for those who come after us.
“We have introduced legislation which has banned several single-use products found commonly littered in our rivers and beaches. We will also intend to commence our bans on single-use plastic carrier bags by May 2026 and have proposed a ban on wet wipes containing plastic.”