BMC volunteers all set for Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) Big Clean Up

Over 50 climbing and hill walking volunteers and eco experts are returning to the slopes of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) this weekend to collect and analyse the overwhelming amount of single-use plastic pollution that still plagues this beautiful mountainside, contributing to Trash Free Trails' (TFT) hugely influential State of Our Trails Report.

The BMC's Yr Wyddfa Big Clean Up event is supported this year by Deuter, the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA), Trash Free Trails (TFT), Plantlife Cymru, the Cymdeithas Eryri (Snowdonia Society), Eryri National Park Authority and Snowdon Mountain Railway, with thanks also to the Baron Hill Estate.

Last year's key stats:

• A total of 2,765 items removed by volunteers and a team of expert climbers
• 62% of items removed are single-use products
• 274 plastic water bottles alone were removed from the Yr Wyddfa trails in 6 hours, over 800 in total over the whole event
• 30% of items removed from Yr Wyddfa were drinks containers eligible to be discarded via a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS)
• Lucozade, Red Bull, Coca Cola and Monster were prevalent brands in trash removed from the popular Miner’s Path and the Trinity Wall gullies

This year...

On Thursday, highly-trained climbers will abseil down the dangerous cliff face of the Trinity Gullies on the north-east side of Yr Wyddfa, to remove the ‘waterfall’ of unsightly, polluting trash that has accumulated there over the last 100 years.

The climbers will receive training from Plantlife Cymru’s expert prior to their descent to limit the damage to rare Alpine plants and invertebrates on their way down, some of which has grown over the waste, making it difficult to remove without harming these rare species.

On Friday, Trash Free Trails (TFT) and Plantlife experts will train the walking volunteers in how to analyse and categorise the single-use plastic pollution to add to TFT’s State of the Trails Report. Their hard-hitting research is used to lobby for positive change such as Deposit Return Schemes (DRS), where people bring back used drinks containers, and Environmental Producer Responsibility (EPR) statements, where brands incur fees for discarded products. Alongside TFT, the Eryri National Park Authority will present Bangor University's research on behavioural change and litter, discussing ways to influence visitor attitudes towards looking after the environment.

On Saturday, 40 walking volunteers will hike along the popular Pyg Track to the upper Glaslyn bowl above Glaslyn, the lake beneath the Trinity Gullies. There, they will analyse and bag up the single-use plastic pollution removed by the climbers, along with any additional litter they collect on the way. There will be a BMC info tent at Pen-y-Pass, where many visitors will start their Yr Wyddfa climb. Here, there will be a ‘rubbish raffle’ or ‘trail clean bingo cards’ to engage hill walkers. Outdoor brand Deuter will award high-quality backpacks to those who have picked the most litter or brought the most single-use-plastic-free lunch.

Where's the trash coming from?

BMC Access & Conservation Officer for Wales, Tom Carrick, says, “We’re not talking about deliberate fly-tipping here on Yr Wyddfa. These gullies are natural debris traps on the lee side of the mountain, so anything left on the summit is likely to end up in them until a dedicated, safely-executed litter pick like this one.

"It’s important to emphasise that everyone is welcome in the outdoors and the vast majority of the 600,000 people visiting Yr Wyddfa each year have great respect for the mountains and the environment; they would never dream of discarding any litter on purpose. Rubbish can be dropped accidentally by anyone, however careful they are, and blown away into these gullies.”

What's the impact?

Dom Ferris, Founder and Managing Director of Trash Free Trails, says, “One of the reasons we use the term 'single-use pollution' instead of 'litter' is because we have strong evidence that when these single-use products escape into the environment, they harm our wildlife, flora, and overall experience, thus meeting the definition of pollution.

“Our research has shown that a fifth of interactions an animal has with an item of single-use pollution will end in death, and our volunteers are increasingly finding examples of this occurring when an animal gets trapped inside a bottle or can. We know from European case studies that a DRS can eradicate a whole category of litter from our trails overnight; why are we allowing beloved hiking spots such as Snowdon to be the alternative to a reverse vending machine?”

Plantlife's ecologist Robbie Blackhall-Miles says, “The plastic pollution found in the gulleys of Clogwyn Y Garnedd is breaking down and causing significant microplastic pollution which has serious impacts for the fragile mountain ecosystem of Yr Wyddfa.'

Alec Young of Eryri National Park highlighted the delicacy of the mountain’s ecosystem, saying, “Microplastics have been found in every soil sample monitored on the most popular paths up Yr Wyddfa. We see a DRS playing a pivotal role in reducing litter on the mountain, and preventing harmful fragmented plastics from entering, and ruining, this fragile environment”.

A Trash Free Future

Our vision at the BMC is to work towards litter-free mountains. Here are some simple steps to follow for good practice around waste in the great outdoors:

1 Choose food and drink options with less packaging, for example, take a refillable bottle rather than a single-use plastic one

2 Make a quick sarnie and carry it in Tupperware rather than buying a shop-packaged one (this is also cheaper!)

3 Take all your rubbish home

4 Pick up any litter you come across if it is safe to do so - take a rubbish bag if you’re really keen

OUR SUPPORTERS

The BMC is tremendously grateful to those supporting the Yr Wyddfa Big Clean Up 2025 event, including Deuter, the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA), Trash Free Trails (TFT), Plantlife Cymru, the Cymdeithas Eryri (Snowdonia Society), Eryri National Park Authority and Snowdon Mountain Railway, with thanks also to the Baron Hill Estate.