Calls for Snowdonia visitors to take litter home with them after ‘significant’ amounts of rubbish left behind

Visitors to Snowdonia are being urged to take their litter home with them following a large rise in the amount of rubbish left behind in the area’s beauty spots.

Snowdonia National Park officials recently launched an anonymous survey in a bid to understand why people drop litter.

It follows a sharp increase in litter as visitors have flocked to the national park in their droves after lockdown measures were lifted.

Helen Pye, the national park’s head of engagement, appeared on the BBC Breakfast show yesterday morning to appeal to people not to leave rubbish behind.

She said: “It’s been quite a challenging year to be honest.

“We’ve always had a bit of an issue with litter and ourselves and volunteers spend a huge amount of time making sure that the national park is cared for and clear of litter.

“But certainly, in the last year we’ve seen a massive increase in popularity of people visiting the countryside, I think because they’ve just been locked up for so long and need a bit of freedom and space.

“Inevitably, more people equals more litter, so the volumes have been quite significant.”

When asked whether she thought people should be taking their little home with them, she said: “That would be amazing and one of the things we are seeing coming out of this survey actually is quite a lot of people are already doing that.

“We have a huge amount of volunteers from organisations like the Snowdonia Society but also informally people are not just taking their own litter, but other people’s litter as well.

“The challenge we have in an amazing, beautiful place like this is our job as a National Park Authority is to look after it without people realising we’re looking after it.

“People want to feel like they’re in a beautiful natural environment, so if we start putting bins everywhere and signs everywhere it doesn’t really add to it.”