NEARLY 50 volunteers took to the River Teifi on water and land on Sunday, June 20, with a mission to remove plastic that was polluting it, following the recent flooding earlier this year.

A huge amount of litter was collected from the banks of the river, including multi-coloured rubble bags, black agricultural silage wrapping and general plastic litter, such as drink bottles, tyres, and even traffic cones.

The Teifi River Clean project was organised by local residents, Marco Rebora and Jill Sutton and was actively supported by Llandysul Paddlers Canoe Centre and Club, West Wales Rivers Trust, Adventure Beyond and Canŵ Cymru / Canoe Wales.

The group brought together an enthusiastic army of volunteers, drawn from the local community, to carry out the first of hopefully future annual river cleans.

"We were amazed by the support we received from the local community, there is clearly a real desire to care for our river,"said organiser Marco Rebora.

Jill Sutton added: "We knew the river was polluted with plastic, but we were astounded at how much the volunteers collected. This just makes us more determined to roll out this project on future occasions."

Harriet Alvis, Project Manager for West Wales Rivers Trust, highlighted the dangers of pollution in rivers.

"It has a huge number of issues for our rivers, ranging from ingestion and entanglement of animals to leaching of harmful chemicals, to breaking up into microplastics that build up in the flesh of animals throughout the foodchain," she said.

Jet Moore, Managing Director of Adventure Beyond a local adventure company, said: “We are so proud to be based in West-Wales and to introduce people to the beauty that surrounds us when on the Teifi.

"Keeping the Teifi clean is a responsibility that we, at Adventure Beyond, feel strongly about and we're so happy to take part in the river clean.”

Thanks also went to Cllr Jayne Ludgate, Newcastle Emlyn's Mayor and from Llandyfriog Community Council, Cllr Derrick Richards and Cllr Ken Jones who helped with the land-based litter pick.

Llandyfriog County Councillor, Wyn Thomas, was also instrumental in organising and liaising with landowners and with Newcastle Emlyn Rugby club whose grounds were used as a finishing point for the litter collection.

Volunteers were fuelled by an amazing selection of cakes baked by local resident Jill Nichols Lowry.

Anyone wishing to take part in a future Teifi River Clean should make contact via teifiriverclean@gmail.com