Each year, our teams do a huge amount of work clearing litter from beautiful places in Eryri. Last summer alone we removed 1033kg of litter from numerous mountainsides and lay-bys.

That’s why we’ve signed a letter supporting our friends at Keep Wales Tidy, calling for industry to take more responsibility for the packaging they produce.

Together, we are calling for the cost of clearing up litter to be shifted to producers. This will hopefully lead to less packaging being manufactured in the first place, and ultimately a reduction in the amount of litter ending up in our waterways and countryside.

More details can be found on the Keep Britain Tidy website.

Update 6 April:

The Summary of Responses to the Extended Producer Responsibility consultation has been published.  We are pleased to see that Welsh and Scottish governments (in contrast to UK government) are holding firm to one of the key elements of ‘producer responsibility’:

“The Scottish and Welsh Governments remain committed to the position set out in the consultation: that the cost of clearing packaging from the ground should be included in producer costs, reflecting producers’ responsibility for packaging design and material choice, and that this obligation would incentivise producers to reduce the amount of single-use packaging and take other steps to prevent litter arising. Alongside this, bodies and organisations beyond just local authorities would be able to benefit from this funding for litter prevention campaigns or local litter picks.

Scotland and Wales will lead on developing detailed proposals for how this could work.”