FLY-TIPPING incidents in Torfaen are caused by people not recycling properly according to an experienced litter picker from the area.

Ron Ford, who has been litter picking in the towns in Torfaen for over ten years, said: "We have problems with multiple occupation of flats basically not recycling in Torfaen."

Mr Ford, who started litter picking after retiring in 2012, said: "Consequently bags just get stacked up on top of each other."

Earlier this month, a trampoline and mattresses were dumped in a car parking area by Osbourne Road in Pontypool. 

Mr Ford said that the people are fly-tipping as they do not know how to recycle properly and are instead leaving their rubbish out on the streets in Cwmbran, Pontypool and Newport. 

Mr Ford said some days litter picking are worse than others.

Recently, he said there "was a particularly bad day outside one block on Forge Lane" where two arm chairs and mattress were dumped.

On the same day at a car park near Osborne Road in Pontypool, there was trampoline and two spring mattresses were dumped which Mr Ford cleared. 

Fed up with the amount of rubbish being left on the streets in the towns of Torfaen, Mr Ford, alongside Jennie Simons, set up the Torfaen Litter Champions in 2018.

"Since then, we have picked 10,518 bags of rubbish, plus lorry loads of fly-tipping as a team and solo picking," said Mr Ford.

Mr Ford said: "Neighbourhood Services and Streetscene are marvellous and remove fly-tipping and our rubbish very quickly. We have a good working arrangement with Torfaen Neighbourhood Services."

Although Torfaen Litter Champions have been helping tidy up litter from Pontypool and Cwmbran, fly-tipping also plagues other towns across Gwent.

Newport council have been trying to clamp down on fly-tipping in the past few months.

Since August, Newport council said it has received over 1,600 reports of fly-tipping.

Officers from Newport City Council have said they have contacted around 195 businesses to check they had proper waste collection arrangements in place, and issued 81 fixed penalty notices for non-compliance over the past few months.