A FOUR-day litter pick on the verges of a dual carriageway took place recently to tackle the “staggering” amount of litter.

While the county’s trunk routes – the A40, A449, A4042, A465 – are managed by the South Wales Trunk Road Agent (SWTRA), Monmouthshire County Council is charged with collecting waste and rubbish on the sides of these main roads.

Just one collection of litter across the whole of Monmouthshire’s trunk road network costs approximately £50,000. This is largely down to the costs of litter-picking teams and their equipment, transporting them to sites and maintaining lane closures and safety while the operation is ongoing.

Recently, a full four-day litter pick on the verges of the A40 between Raglan and Abergavenny involved 12 staff from the council’s waste and street services teams. Both sides of the nine mile stretch were cleaned, yielding 4.5 tonnes of rubbish. The team will return to clear the central reservation.

Monmouthshire’s Operations Manager Nigel Leaworthy said: “Clearing the trunk road network throughout Monmouthshire is a massive undertaking requiring lane closures which must be authorised by SWTRA beforehand.  SWTRA permits us to close a maximum five kilometres of road at any one time and we can only start work at 9.30am following the morning rush hour. This means our teams are redeployed from other tasks to allow us to complete the clearance within permitted timescales.

“We usually collect between 1.5 and two tonnes of rubbish per day and this largely consists of plastic and steel containers, paper, fast food cartons and coffee cups. We also deal with fly-tipping in laybys - often rubble, large bags of general rubbish, and most unpleasantly, bottles of urine and faeces. SWTRA undertakes litter clearance once a year, but only within the verges before they are mowed.”

“Our teams must be congratulated as they do a great job in a noisy and dirty environment. It can also be frustrating to discover a cleared section is strewn with litter the following day.”

Councillor Bryan Jones, Monmouthshire’s cabinet member with responsibility for county operations added: “Only a minority of people throw litter from their vehicles but in doing so they cause a large amount of expenditure as well as inconvenience when we have to close lanes to allow our litter-pickers to work safely. I appeal to all passing through on Monmouthshire’s roads to take their litter home and dispose of it appropriately.  The amount of litter is staggering and given recent publicity about plastics I would have hoped for a more enlightened attitude from motorists. It’s a short journey from a ditch in Monmouthshire to a stream, to a river and then to the ocean.”