Cardiff Rivers Group (CRG) is a volunteer-run environmental charity which holds events across Cardiff and South Wales at which

volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

clean up and improve watercourses: rivers, streams, ponds or the sea. This could be a general litter pick of areas surrounding a watercourse, clearance of debris from a river or pond or removal of fly-tipping. The group also undertakes habitat management across the city in conjunction with

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff () is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Administrative divisions of Wales, principal areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

urban park rangers.

Background

The Group was founded in 2009 by Dave King MBE and other like-minded volunteers from

Keep Wales Tidy Keep Wales Tidy is a Wales, Welsh national voluntary environmental charity which works towards achieving "a clean, safe and tidy Wales". It works in partnership with Local Authorities, schools and community groups, and organisations such as W ...

. Events take place across Cardiff typically every couple of week ranging from cleaning the banks of the

Rhymney River The Rhymney River () is a river in the Rhymney Valley, South Wales, flowing through Cardiff into the Severn Estuary. The river formed the boundary between the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire until in 1887, the parishes ea ...

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

to making a hedge in Grangemoor Park or trying to eradicate the invasive

Himalayan Balsam ''Impatiens glandulifera'', Himalayan balsam, is a large annual plant native to the Himalayas. Via human introduction it is now present across much of the Northern Hemisphere and is considered an invasive species in many areas. Uprooting or cutt ...

. Volunteers do not need to register, just turn up to an event as and when they wish. The group can expect up to 70 volunteers for any given event. CRG emphasises the social aspect of the litter picks as well as the environmental benefits. Their website states "Most importantly, our volunteers have fun!". In an interview with Cardiff council on receiving his MBE, founder Dave King said "The Rivers Group is more than just a litter picking thing. You can get out, make friends, you're really making a difference. We've helped people prepare to get jobs, we're a social circle, and we're a network." In 2024,

Wales Online Media Wales Ltd. is a publishing company based in Cardiff, Wales. As of 2009 it was owned by Reach plc (formerly known as the Trinity Mirror Group). It was previously known as the Western Mail & Echo Ltd. History The ''Western Mail'' was fou ...

featured some of the more unusual discarded items that the group have found. In addition to grant funding, much of what is found, especially

scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

and nitrous oxide canisters, is recycled to fund the charity. In 2015 The group were partners in Cardiff Council's Environmental scrutiny committee producing the "Restore Our Rivers" report. This listed some of the group's successes and stated the group had 350 volunteers. In 2020 CRG registered as a

Charitable incorporated organisation A charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) is a Incorporation (business), corporate form of business designed for (and only available to) Charitable organization, charitable organisations in England and Wales. A similar form, with minor differe ...

. Cardiff Rivers Group partnered with Nextbike while they were active in Cardiff, receiving scrap in return for reuniting abandoned bikes with the company.

Awards

In the Tidy Wales awards for 2012, run by Keep Wales Tidy, the group were winners in the River Improvement category and the overall Tidy Wales winner. In 2015, CRG was awarded the

Queen's Award for Voluntary Service The King's Award for Voluntary Service, previously known as The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, is an annual award given to groups in the voluntary sector of the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies. Until 2022, awardees were announce ...

, the highest award that can be made to a voluntary group, for "Helping communities take responsibility for the cleanliness of their local watercourses". In 2023, CRG was shortlisted for the Welsh Charity Awards, run by WCVA, and a runner-up in the income generation category A

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for the most participants in a river clean-up at multiple locations was broken in March 2025 on the river Taff, Cardiff Rivers Group were one of the groups taking part in contributing to the 1327 participants.

References

{{reflist Charities based in Wales Organisations based in Cardiff Organizations established in 2009 Rivers of Cardiff Environmental charities based in the United Kingdom Volunteer organisations in the United Kingdom