Monday, 22 April was Earth Day, 54 years after the very first one when individuals and organisations are asked to focus on our planet's fragility and take action to support it. Pwllheli Rotary Club decided to support this year's Earth Day with a clean-up of Cob Crwn in Porthmadog; the embankment surrounding the inner harbour pool which fills every high tide.

David Medcalf, Environmental lead for the Rotary Club, said they selected Cob Crwn for lots of reasons, not least that there was an enormous amount of tide-carried rubbish, and a lot of human-carried rubbish too.

He said: “The embankment is a very popular walk and has wonderful views. It is one of the best places in the country for watching water birds; often you can look down on a feeding Egret only a few metres away and in summer there is a good chance of seeing an Osprey fishing on Traeth Mawr.

“Unfortunately the view also includes a lot of colourful plastic and other waste, all around the tide level.

Because it is a bit awkward to access the areas where rubbish collects, it really needs an organised effort, using litter-pickers and bags to place the rubbish in.

“We are very grateful for the support of the harbourmaster and the Gwynedd Council Maritime team for lending litter-pickers, providing bags and arranging for the full bags to be collected.

“Ten people from the Porthmadog area joined us and, in an hour or so of effort, we collected 16 black bags full of rubbish and a lot of items too big for the bags such as boxes, plastic pipes - even a Gwynedd Council Recycling box!

“It was well worth the effort and we left Cob Crwn as an even more pleasant place to walk around, just in time for the influx of summer visitors!”

He added: “I'm very pleased to say that, following this, Ysgol Eifion Wyn has asked if we would arrange a litter-pick that they could join in. Maybe that could be along Y Cwt, the path linking Porthmadog with Tremadog along Madock's canal.”