Lack of bins on the Ely Trail (towards St Fagans)

[daffysmum]

Is there anything FCDH or the council can do about the lack of bins on the Ely Trail?

[plasticflower]

I was saying exactly the same thing yesterday. Maybe as Friends is picking up more members and the dogs are being walked along that path a lot more we should enquire about it.

I was surprised there weren't even any bins at the picnic spot!

As far as I could see the first bin we came to were the ones at the fields and park at Lansdowne Rd.

[Baglady]

This is really difficult....

Apparently, Cardiff Council do not provide poop bins at all.

The reason is, because poop is contaminated waste (I don't know what the actual term is, but you know what I mean) the councils have to pay extra to have this collected, and Cardiff, apparently, don't do it. The Vale of Glamorgan do, but not Cardiff.

I believe some 'green areas' (not just Cardiff, but everywhere) simply do not have litter bins (poop or general litter) at all, and the reasoning behind this is that if you put a bin somewhere, people will 'abuse' it, throw rubbish 'in the direction of it' and the area very quickly becomes a litter pit. So the lack of bins is thought to encourage people to take all their litter home. Also, a factor along the Ely Trail would be emptying it - it's not accessible by vehicles, so the Council would not be able to empty it anyway?

We have discussed putting a bin somewhere near the Home but...

The Home is leased from the Vale, but all of the surrounding land is private land, and it's obviously not the responsibility of the land owner to provide litter bins.

If Friends located a bin in the area, we would have to get permission from the land owner (I have no idea who this is, or what they would say)...

if they said yes, it couldn't be a metal bin, or otherwise 'desirable' - it would disappear straight away and end up being turned into scrap metal (apparently this happened with a CDH metal sign)

As it would be on private land, someone would have to be responsible for emptying it....

I know there have been discussions somewhere about Friends taking a proactive role in keeping the whole environment around the Home tidy, I think Penny had some information on this.

I know a few people would like to see this subject explored a bit more, so if anyone does have any thoughts/ideas, please do chip in ;D

[Baglady]

There seems to be a general feeling that the area around the Home could do with some TLC

Friends have spoken with Keep Wales Tidy, and we will be arranging a litter pick in the vicinity of CDH shortly to try to make the area more attractive ;D

Chris from Keep Wales Tidy is prepared to come to our Last Sunday event this weekend and provide us with some kit - litter pickers, gloves, bags, etc if we can get 6 named 'Litter Champions' to sign up.

It will make such a difference to visitors to CDH, and to our walkers, and to our dogs, if that area was litter free and attractive.

Well peeps - who's up for it ;D

[Becky]

Count me in for it!!

[nuggie]

Litter is something I have been involved with in my local area. Atlantic Wharf Residents Association has a relationship with KWT through Chris Partridge who Baglady mentioned. ''Friends'' linking with KWT will be a very positive move as they are very supportive and know who to speak to where we might not.

If I can comment on past posts;- Poop bins are no longer needed as Dog Poop has been down graded to general waste so can go into ordinary bins.

As said, If the council deem that a lorry cannot get access to collect they will not put a bin.
In A/Wharf we residents campaigned for bins on the dock feeder canal walkway. Eventually they agreed to place a secondhand bin there as long as we residents would empty it. The council provide the thick green bags and pick up from a prearranged spot.

This situation would not be suitable for the Ely Trail as too many bins would be needed and the distance to a pick up point would be difficult.

I think we should approach the probation 'Community Pay Back Team'' ( These are people who have to do community service after Court apperances ) Their supervisors are always looking for jobs they can do, the Pay Back Team were helping us clear rubbish from the canal last Friday.
If we could get the organisers on side perhaps they would agree to doing it at regular intervals, say once a month.
This would leave FCDH to look after the Home and access road which I feel is much more manageable than the Trail.
Something to think about.
PS Nuggie and Deputydawg have put names down for litter duty.

[daffysmum]

Count me in Susie!

[jakesmum]

You can include me in the six - it's like 'The Fellowship of the Bin' ;D

[daffysmum]

Rach - I like it!

[gutsymum]

me too ;D

[Baglady]

Thanks everyone - I'm sooooo glad that we've had a positive response to this

Lucee (on Skomer hollibobs at the mo) has offered to head this up, and our Champions so far then are...

Bernard
Caz
Becky
Rach
Lynne (daffysmum)

Is anyone else willing to put their hands up

It doesn't mean you'll be packed off once a month to pick up empty crisp packets on your own... We will arrange litter pick dates with KWT and will be encouraging as many Friends and other volunteers as possible to join in. It shouldn't take long for us to clear the lane every now and then, and I do think people will be less likely to litter (and let dogs foul) if they are aware that people are making an effort to improve our surroundings.

Thanks Bern for all that really useful stuff, it all looks really promising ;D Lucy will be back by Sunday, so perhaps you could both exchange ideas and thoughts with Chris.

[pennyb]

I know on Hailey Park most of our litter pickers are dog walkers who go out to walk their dogs and pick up litter 2-3 times a week (mind you some of them were doing it long before anyone formed them into a group (either as Friends' or 'KWT Litter Champions') just because they wanted the place to be as litterfree as possible)

I think you also need to keep account of how many binbags-worth you collect as well for KWT's records

The council wouldn't put another bin on Hailey Park (only one part of park has bins so we were left with 2/3 without anything) so we bought an ordinary metal dustbin and chained it to the gate and surprisingly its lid has remained there as well despite the fact its not tied to anything (we went for metal as we were worried about fire as that's what they do round here!)

[pennyb]

Mar 18, 2012 2:23:08 GMT Baglady said:

I believe some 'green areas' (not just Cardiff, but everywhere) simply do not have litter bins (poop or general litter) at all, and the reasoning behind this is that if you put a bin somewhere, people will 'abuse' it, throw rubbish 'in the direction of it' and the area very quickly becomes a litter pit.

to be honest cardiff council won't pick up bins anywhere that's not near a road on one of their routes as it costs money to do so - you may have noticed that bins are disappearing as well even on the regular routes in Cardiff alongside roads, as it costs the council to pick up so its more a cost saving measure these days (on my walk from Llandaff north to Whitchurch on main routes all the bins have now gone) - so not just in green areas any more (places like forest farm have more bins than before but forest farm themselves have a system of collecting bags and taking them to near a lorry collection point).

[Jo]

Sorry for leaving in the middle of the Keep Wales Tidy man doing his bit, Susie! I had to pick up Nico from a party in Dinas Powys and was running late.

If you need any more litter pickers signed up, I can do this on occasional weekends but work in evenings.