We have just enjoyed a fantastic weekend of riding at Afan, we stayed at Brynteg if you are asking.
However i was flabbergasted by the amount of litter on the trails. It looked like alot of energy gel wrappers and even a can of monster chucked in the hedge at windy point!
So just a comment, not expecting big things but if you are about to throw away some wrappers or an empty gel bag then please think again, it is not as if there are little pixies roaming the trails to pick up after you-no, they are too busy shaping the ribbons of dirt that we want to ride. We should all act responsibly and take it home with us.

ta.

Couldn’t agree more – take it in, pack it out. Simples as they say.

Just think what their homes are like.
i do a spot of sea fishing, you should see the state of some of the places I go to, proper sh!t tips, dreadful.

I hate litter with a passion but 5 weeks ago at Afan I did not notice that much at all. Whereas the verges of the M11 , A14 and A11 between London and Thetford today were awash with plastic junk. Really depresses me how people can be so uncaring about this. Its the perfect job for community service I think or would people drop even more if they thought cons were going to have to pick it up?

Yes, & this applies to “Zak”, who also lovingly left his nicely labelled sandwich bag tucked under a rock at the top the 2nd to last run on Cannocks Monkey trail. Little ****.

South wales is full of slag heaps, ie. rubbish. Has been for years. However I’m not saying you should add to the problem. I find it a real shame.

i went to whytes level a coupe of weeks back and took 4 innertubes and some wrappers away with me. the inner tubes had been chucked up into the trees!!!

bring it in, leave with it!

I agree and try to pick up a bit of litter after every ride,just as a way of putting something back into the countryside..

bring it in, leave with it!

totally agree Jedi..

Its very disheartening knowing it can only be “people” with mountainbikes throwing litter away at trail centres.. 😥

I hope “proper” mountainbikers dont do this.. 😉

Fully agreed I don’t understand it at all!

I live locally to Afan Argoed and Glyncorrwg. I too get hacked off with the plastic and other detritus that people discard. I usually stop and collect wrappers etc from the trailside but not always.

The amount of plastic litter beside the main Afan road is shameful.

South wales is full of slag heaps, ie. rubbish. Has been for years. However I’m not saying you should add to the problem. I find it a real shame.

Thats a bit harsh flatfish !! Slag heaps were a by product of coal mining. They wern’t ever rubish tips, just the waste that came up with the coal. There’s not much coal mined in S.Wales anymore and most slag heaps have been landscaped. The rubbish at trail centres is just an unfortunate consequence of mtb’s increased popularity among some of the more chavy elements out there.

Swinley is the same, especially around the Labyrinth. I picked up 2 shopping bags of rubbish back in Jan, and was back there a couple of weeks ago and it was twice as bad.

Completely agree with take it in carry it out, if it carrys on the way it is we might as well just ride at the local tip.

LEAVE NO TRACE

you should see how much crap has been left all over wharncliffe – it’s disgusting!

take only photographs
leave only footprints(tyre tracks)
kill nothing but time

I wasn’t trying to be harsh but if were going to talk about slagheaps, why aren’t they moved into opencast mines to fill in the holes, bloody big holes, left by man.
I wasn’t having a go at Wales(being an english man), I spend a lot of time riding around Wales.
Rubbish/waste really annoys me, whether it be a tube on a trail centre or a paper coffee cup on the side of the motorway.

Would it be controversial of me to suggest trail centres are partly to blame? Riding natural trails, where a degree of self-sufficiency is required, fosters a respect for the countryside that you just don’t get in a trail centre.

Or is it just a general lack of respect??

I was at Afan/ Glyncorrwg this weekend and didn’t see any litter at all… apart from a deflated helium balloon which had been put under a rock… 😕

apart from a deflated helium balloon which had been put under a rock…

Wondered where that went? 😉

Seriously though there has been fly tipping on a route our club uses for night riding, now it full of broken glass and industrial waste. Makes you think who’s put it there?

People who do that are just pigs and shite. 😡

We brought down a bunch of empty glass beer bottles from the shelter at the top of minch moor a while back… “Ok here we are at the summit of innerleithen red, just about to belt down its famous descent… Let’s have a couple of pints to celebrate!”

Do the same as 5AM on occasion at Swinley, take a carrier bag out, fill it and pop in bin at Look out, thanks to 5AM and others for also doing this..

Rode Coed y Brenin this weekend and gained two inner tubes on my travels, all good to repair and use again, just don’t get it, they even went to the effort to hang them from a tree, should have used that effort to pocket or put in a bag!

perhaps this is democracy in action? Maybe most people like having crap scattered everywhere as a way of making their mark, and those few who object to it are just unsociable gits ?

Only sign a mountain bike has been anywhere should be the tyre tracks in the mud.

Picked up an empty “Monster Energy” pop can at Hamsterley on Sat, at teh top of the latest red bit, amazing how someone can carry a full tin of fizzy pop up there but can’t take an empty can back down. Must’nt be “gnar” or something
Arseholes, still they’ll f off and get a corsa when they are 17

SO heavy….

This is sad, but not impossible for me to imagine. I’ve only ridden Afan once and it was the worst place I’ve been for gangs of obnoxious yuppies. All the gear and no idea etc etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I despise littering as well, and never do it myself, but it’s important to remember that litter is just a more visible manifestation of what we all do with our rubbish. Landfill is nothing more than a hole in ground that we chuck most of our waste into. It’s destructive, disgusting and shameful. Maybe litter nags at so many of us because deep down we know how much crap we produce, and how horrible that is?

It’s not just trail centres.
I would have expected better of marathon riders, especially those wearing an easily recognisable team jersey.
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/gel-wrapper-droppers-name-shame

There are a lot of people in society who care so little that they’ll happily toss litter wherever they fancy.

Unfortunately some of these people visit trail centres & bring their anti-social habits with them.

The more stupid ones probably think a care-taker comes round after closing time with a vacuum cleaner.

take only photographs
leave only footprints(tyre tracks)
kill nothing but time

Take time to deal with your Rubbish
Leave the place tidier
Kill all litterers.

Dropping energy gels and empty drinks bottles at a trail centre – do people think they’re on La Tour.?

It also points to a general chaviness/lack of preparedness (after all you don’t see camelbaks and tupperwares strewn around the trails.)

MTBing has changed. Its all about marketing/branding/image/selling stuff, rather than a getting out there and being at one with nature.

This brings with it the hordes of rampant, greedy consumers. They enjoy nothing more than emabarking upon an epic ride on their £4k full suspension bikes round the countryside.

Their incredible greed has turned them into overweight, unfit beasts. So the top of every climb is met with a “refuelling stop” where they unload their Camelback full of fizzy stimulation drinks, tescos sandwiches and snickers bars. In their adrenaline fueled eating frenzy, the wrappers are simple forgotton about and a left strewn across our great countryside.

its such a shame

only one piece of litter on my local route yesterday – can of special brew 😯

Never mind all of us saying how bad it is to drop litter. What about some constructive suggestions to solve the problem.

Some have said they pick it up, which is great, but sadly wont deter the **** that leave it.

Perhaps the centers can put up a big picture right at the start of the trail, it could show the trail with litter on it and tell everyone that leaving litter is stupid. Make it a big sign with a clear picture and a simple clear slogan – make it **** obvious and brutal, the message may get through.

Offer a parking refund for anyone who takes a bag round the trail with them and brings it back full of trail litter.

We did a similar thing when I was a dive guide in Egypt – we cleaned up some of the shite from reefs in the Red Sea using volunteers help.

What about some constructive suggestions to solve the problem.

learn to live with the rubbish.

Did you pick any up?

If you didn’t you’re as bad as the person who dropped it their!

Actually I think we should do more than just pick it up. That dosent stop the problem, it just makes those dropping it even less likely to change since we clean up after them.

Better to educate them / push them / shame them to change their ways.

Alternatively, just ride a bit faster next time then you’ll be concentating too much on the trail to notice the rubbish.

Every time I watch the Tour, or some other pro cycling event (outdoor), I wonder who picks up all the sh*t that they throw on the floor. I know spectators will pick up some of the water bottles, but who clears up the gel wrappers etc that they just wazz on the floor with impunity?

I picked up a pocketful of bar and gel wrappers a couple of weeks ago on Whytes. A lot of it was at the top of the first climb (Windy point) so this wasn’t stuff that had fallen out of pockets.

As someone said above though – the amount of plastic all forms of litter beside the main Afan road is shameful – Katie and I commented on it as we drove up. I kind of suspect that’s locals rather than visiting mountain bikers.

It annoys me when people throw banana peel. Yes its biodegradable, but it takes 2 months for it to go and its still **** littering!

TRAMPS!