Rebel Mams getting together to clean up dumped gas canisters

A COMMUNITY group is looking for help in collecting unsightly gas canisters from the streets of Cardiff.

The silver canisters, pictured right, which have appeared on many city streets, are fast becoming a litter problem. They’re commonly used to hold nitrous oxide, which is traditionally used in baking or in hospitals as a painkiller.

But in recent years they have been used as a potentially lethal drug, with people buying the gas to inhale it. It can starve the body of oxygen and 25 deaths have been linked to nitrous oxide use in the UK between 2010 and 2016. In 2016, it became illegal in Wales to sell nitrous oxide for human consumption under the Psychoactive Substances Act.

The group now wants help in finding the empty nitrous oxide canisters, which are regularly dumped on roads, verges and wasteland, to help clean up the banks of the River Taff in Gabalfa and Llandaff North.

The group – YGC Rebel Mams – was started during lockdown by a group of mums from Ysgol Glan Ceubal Primary school in Gabalfa. It has now grown to include lots of different people from the community, not just mums. Various activities have been safely organised, including litter picks, Christmas trail, zoo trails, movie trails, treasure hunts, community Christmas trees and even chalked “happy messages” have been placed all over the neighbourhood.

The group found a company in Cardiff that will recycle the steel canisters and any money raised will go to Cardiff Rivers Group which is helping with future plans to clear up the banks of the river.