Imagine this: you climb all the way up a beautiful mountain only to find that the photos you take have been spoiled by litter in the background – not very Insta-friendly, is it?
More importantly, it’s not very eco-friendly and now efforts are under way at Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon) to turn things around.
Local businesspeople and the National Park Authority want to make the Welsh mountain the first in the world to be ‘plastic free’. This has come in response to growing concerns over piles of rubbish being dumped at the summit and on the mountain trails, and the impact this might be having on surrounding wildlife.
Surveys of samples from Yr Wyddfa have found large amounts of microplastics in the soil which can affect its overall health.
‘A huge amount of litter is cleared by staff and volunteers, but by no means all gets picked up,’ said John Harold, director of the Snowdonia Society and chair of Partneriaeth Yr Wyddfa. ‘These results are a stark reminder of how persistent plastic is when it gets into the environment.’
With around 600,000 people climbing Yr Wyddfa every year, locals have put their heads together to come up with a plan to stop people littering on their climbs and put the mountain on the map as the world’s first plastic-free mountain.
The National Park Authority will take its first step on the ‘plastic-free path’ by hosting an event at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Llanberis, Wales, on Monday April 24, with a focus on educating the public about littering, the impact of plastic pollution and ways of reducing single-use plastics.
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