More than two thousand tyres, one hundred shopping trollies and four tonnes of scrap metal have been fished out of a river in Wales.
The operation on the River Ogmore at Bridgend was the culmination of four years’ work by a local dog walker called Alun.
He helped pulled together 150 volunteers and two mechanical diggers to dredge the polluted river.
Alun said: “It’s amazing for the environment to remove this.
“It’s just fantastic just to see what is coming out of the river and how much is being removed.
“But with everyone coming together to do this is beyond belief – I can’t thank everyone enough.”
Volunteers Jerry Cross said: “It’s tragic seeing what’s in this river today.
“I am shocked, we must start looking after our planet better than this.”
During the clean-up the Keep Wales Tidy team removed:
Approximately three or four tonnes of scrap
Approximately 100 bags of litter
Between 50 and 100 shopping trolleys
Gas cannisters
A wooden cart wheel
A fridge
Traffic cones
Last year there were over 40,000 incidents of fly-tipping recorded in Wales.
Carlos Garcias de Leaniz, professor of aquatic sciences at Swansea University, said:
“We have a fantastic array of sensitive species but they are swimming in waterways filled with toxic rubbish.
“When you burn these tyres you’re releasing toxic volatile compounds – in rubber it can accumulate in aquatic organisms.
“This is not going to be something aquatic life has evolved to cope with.
“Water is going to be so important in the future, it’s going to play such a role in combating and fighting climate change.
“It’s shown to improve air quality but if [rivers] are not clean then society is not getting the full benefits of these blue infrastructures.”
Firefighters from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service were on hand to hose off the mud from the rubbish.
Keep Wales Tidy and Natural Resources Wales were all involved in the clear-up.
David King from Cardiff Rivers group, said:
“This is not just one person throwing an odd tyre off a bridge.
“This must be organised, people collecting tyres as a business and tipping them straight into the river over a long period of time.”
Neil Harrison, from Fly Tipping Action Wales, said some tyres had been in the river for more than 10 years.
He added:
“We believe some of the tyres flowing down the river catchment could be from rogue traders collecting tyres from garages or anyone who deals with tyres and dumping them into the river.”
