St David Awards: Merthyr litter picker Daniel Lewis honoured

A teenager has received a Welsh national award for fighting fly-tipping in his community.

Daniel Lewis, 17, won the young person's category at the Welsh government's St David Awards ceremony on Thursday evening.

He has cleaned up 25 tonnes of illegal rubbish at fly-tipping hotspots in his home town of Merthyr Tydfil.

His clean-up campaign has included installing CCTV to catch offenders and providing skips.

The teenager said he was so fed up of seeing waste surrounding his home town during lockdown he had to do something about it, so he started by cleaning the streets himself.

Fly-tipping in the south Wales town was once described as on an "industrial scale" so Daniel has been delighted to see other youngsters picking up litter and tackling waste after being inspired by his actions.

As well as a community skip scheme, Daniel has also set up a tyre skip at Cyfarthfa Park after seeing piles of tyres dumped illegally.

The footage he collects from CCTV close to fly-tipping hotspots is passed to the police and the council to aid prosecutions.

In a ceremony at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on Thursday night, he said: "I've always been passionate about our local environment and as I was driving with my family over the Merthyr and Gelligaer common, I saw the disgusting amount of waste illicitly dumped there and decided I'd do something about it."

He used his own money before getting local companies on board.

"I started off in January 2020 paying for skips out of my own money from savings and my apprenticeship. And then from there I advertised what I was doing on Facebook and then local companies got in touch with me and they gave me skips and support.

"Since putting the CCTV up in the fly-tipping hot spots there haven't been any prosecutions as people have been deterred so there's been a drop in fly-tipping straight away."

Daniel wants to expand his project and continue organising big group events to clear waste with local residents.

Merthyr council said it was grateful to people helping to make the area "a cleaner and greener place to live, work and visit".

"Our street cleansing teams do a fantastic job, however littering and fly-tipping continues to be a national issue," said a council statement.

Other winners include the youth organisation the Urdd, which won the special award on its centenary for its achievements over the past 100 years, including helping people seeking refuge from Afghanistan and the Ukraine.

Its residential centre in Cardiff Bay is being used to help up to 250 people from Ukraine and it has helped 100 children and families as part of the Afghan resettlement scheme.

Former gambling addict Jordan Lea from Llysfaen, Conwy county, won the business award. After losing his job and home, his business Dealmeout was set up in 2019. He now employs 10 people to help gambling addicts and provide educational workshops on the dangers gambling can pose.

Most of his staff have direct experience with gambling themselves or supporting family members with gambling.