Litter free Snowdonia? It's in our hands

Mary-Kate Jones

With the support of the Snowdon Partnership, The Snowdonia Society is taking the lead on tackling litter. We’ve been busy putting together a package of co-ordinated messages, actions, and campaigns to tackle specific litter isues on Snowdon and around Snowdonia.

Litter can seem a daunting problem. The aim of this work is to break the litter problem down into bite size chunks, get people thinking and encourage positive changes in behaviour. Our initial messages are on fruit peel, plastic bottles, crisp packets and that old dilemma ‘What to do about a Number two’.

Fruit peel is a classic example. We think that many people who leave fruit peel on a mountain would be horrified at the thought of leaving a plastic bottle. Many are unaware that, although fruit peel breaks down quickly in a lovely warm compost heap, it can last for up to two years in the cold mountains. By communicating simple messages like this we hope to nudge people to take extra care and be better prepared. We’re sharing these posters widely on social media. Please help us spread the word and together with the Snowdon Partnership, partners and responsible businesses across Snowdonia we can help communicate the right messages and make a difference across the National Park. Litter is not inevitable. A litter-free Snowdonia is possible. It’s obvious that a litter-free Snowdonia would be a better experience for everyone – residents and visitors alike. But a litter-free Snowdonia would also save money, a genuine ‘win-win’ outcome. The cost savings and staff time savings if everyone took litter home are significant, given the immense pressures at the moment on the authorities, charities, landowners and volunteers who between them look after Snowdonia.

There are plenty of hard problems, like transport and parking for example, where long term solutions will need big bucks spent on the right infrastructure and running costs. Litter is different. The solutions to litter are in our hands – each of us has a vital part to play.

Litter is, literally, in our hands. Who would think it ok to open their door and find litter dumped on their doorstep? The answer is no-one. That’s why we think everyone is capable of understanding why this matters, capable of caring. Our challenge is to get that awareness over to people in ways that work. So litter doesn’t have to be one of those ‘hard problems’. If people drop stuff it’s because they haven’t thought about it, or don’t see the consequences or why it matters. So

getting the right messages across in ways that people engage with really can make a difference. That’s what our campaign is all about.

We’re asking everyone to help by spreading these messages on-line. This is the first stage of a project to break the litter problem into its constituent parts – zooming in to focus on different types of litter and get targeted messages across.

Together we can take steps towards a litter-free Snowdonia – the Snowdonia we love, only better.

Mary-Kate Jones is Project Manager for the Snowdonia Society

Potel blastig ar lwybr watkin ● Plastic bottle on Watkin path ©Ben Porter