The homeless charity cleaning our rivers

Local TV

The Wambles of Wales is a homeless charity which organises litter-picks across the city. They’re now taking their plight to the water, helped by one man and his boat, as they look to clean Cardiff by land and sea.

Transcript

00:01The Wambles of Wales have been helping clean our streets for over a year.

00:04They're out every day in the city, and now they're tackling the issues by land and sea.

00:09With a weekly boat trip around the bay and down the taff,

00:11helping collect the litter that would otherwise be almost impossible to clean up.

00:15And Paul says it's an amazing thing that they do.

00:17The great guys that we get to take out are back to nature every single week.

00:22But they're not just here for a jolly.

00:25They're also looking after nature at the same time.

00:30And it just makes such a difference.

00:33The group is made up of homeless people who want to help nature.

00:36And while they say it's great for their mental health,

00:38it's also doing good in our natural spaces that keeps them going.

00:41Paul says, though, that if it wasn't for the kind nature of people who help them,

00:45they wouldn't be able to do what they do.

00:46An amazing supporter of ours, Jeff,

00:50who donates his boat every single week to us

00:55and spends a few hours of his time, his money,

01:00for the boat, his petrol, etc.

01:04I enjoy doing it just to know that we're clear in litter.

01:08On my morning walk on Panath Marina, every morning, 6.30,

01:13I'm walking around litter picking.

01:15And I've been doing that for over six years.

01:17And there are others litter picking on Panath Marina.

01:20And it's almost like Disney World now.

01:22It's very clear.

01:23Jeff has a massive focus on helping disabled people experience boating trips.

01:27And he's had this boat specifically modified to have disability access.

01:31He wants more people to see what's available to them.

01:34For the time being, though, he's excited to be able to help the Wombles of Wales

01:37and wants to see more people get involved.

01:39I think the more people that are aware that there are people like us picking up litter,

01:44the more they'll join in and help.

01:47And I think we've seen evidence of that during the last few weeks

01:50when we've been experiencing people shouting to us,

01:54well done, lads, well done.

01:56And, you know, that makes us all feel good.

01:58Chris has a disability and uses a wheelchair.

02:00So being able to be part of the River Cleanups is a great experience for him.

02:04And he says that he loves being able to be involved.

02:06This is killer and for mental health and well-being.

02:09You're just out with nature.

02:12You know, you're at one, you're helping it.

02:15It's cracking.

02:16You're making people smile as well.

02:17As we've been going around, we've had people smiling, recording,

02:22enjoying seeing what we do.

02:24It might be much cleaner than before they started,

02:26but it hasn't come without hard work.

02:28Rick and Tom have been on a number of the River Cleanup trips,

02:31and the amount of rubbish is staggering.

02:33The thing that they use plastic bottles, water bottles, drinks bottles,

02:36quite a bit of glass being alcohol-related,

02:41vodka, whiskey bottles, different sizes,

02:45and plastic caps as well.

02:48A massive chunk of polystyrene we've got.

02:51It's probably two or three kilos,

02:53about 10,000 little polystyrene balls.

02:56If that goes in the ocean, that's at least a million fish killed.

02:59You're looking forward to what's in the ocean

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