He’s six-foot-ten, has a shock of green hair, sports a permanent grin and has books for feet. Meet Rhys Cycle, Rhondda Cynon Taf’s (RCT) easily-identifiable waste mascot. He’s made up of all sorts of recyclable items, including a tin can for a head, a large cardboard box for a shirt (featuring the motto ‘We can sort out recycling together’) and an impressive leafy garland around one of his legs, and was ‘found’ seven years ago under the recycling at the council’s Coedcae Lane Streetcare Depot.

Or, at least that’s the story on his official website. In reality, he is the brainchild of the RCT Streetcare Team led by Nigel Wheeler, who explains: “When I came here, waste was really low-profile, and we wanted to engage with kids because we thought it was a good way forward.” Wheeler, who was brought into waste from construction as a temporary measure to improve performance (but who never returned to his old job), goes on to explain that the council worked with a design company to perfect the mascot’s appearance and had a costume made professionally: “We invested a little bit of money in the costume – not a huge amount, but people were moaning about the council wasting money – but we’ve had him now for seven years and he’s still going strong, so it was money well invested.”

And so ‘Rhys’ was born. With the aim of raising the profile of waste and recycling and engaging with children, he’s been fairly busy ever since, travelling with the Streetcare team whenever they go to events, visiting schools, performing in pantomimes, judging the council’s EnviroVision Song Contest, welcoming local schoolchildren when they take ‘landfill safaris’ at the Bryn Pica landfill site (more of which in a moment), and even taking part in mascot races. Rhys is so busy, in fact, that he sometimes has to turn down social engagements: “Sometimes it’s quite difficult because we haven’t got the time. In the summer a lot of the little villages have a village fete or the school will have a day and the amount we hear ‘Can we have Rhys?’ is unbelievable. We don’t loan him out because he cost a lot and we’re very cautious about who can use him.”

All this getting about has really paid off, Wheeler insists, noting: “When we go to events now and Rhys comes out, he’s like the Pied Piper – the kids all come running.” And in fact, the first generation of kids to meet Rhys are now pushing their comprehensive schools to improve their environmental performances, Wheeler notes. He cites the ‘Re-uniform’ project as a prime example of this – the idea was initially put forward and trialled by the eco committee in one of the local comprehensive schools and will soon see old uniforms resold at a discount at the ‘Rhys Cycle Shop’ in Pontypridd.

Clearly not one to rest on his laurels, Rhys (along with his friends at the council, of course) has recently launched a joint project with Cardiff City football club, ‘Cleaning up the Game’, which sees local schools engage in a six-week recycling and litter project. At time of writing, he’s also gearing up for his first ever Santa’s Grotto at the Bryn Pica landfill; Rhys will be Santa, and, yes, there will be a costume worn over the costume and, yes, he will have an elf. The Streetcare team are also developing a friend for Rhys, Dr Clean, and an arch nemesis for the two, Dr Pol Lution and, Wheeler tells me, there are a of couple other ideas in their infancy. “We’re prepared to try anything”, Wheeler says. “Some work, some don’t – not many of them have failed, fortunately.”

(At this point, speaking of Santa, it’s probably worth noting that I realise ‘Rhys’ isn’t ‘real’. He is, in fact, whoever’s willing to wear the costume on the day. While the enforcement team tend to don it most frequently on school visits, most team members have at some point been Rhys, with Wheeler himself playing the part one year for Children in Need. I ask him if there’s a trick to being Rhys and he says: “Not really – so long as you dance or wave, that’s all that matters.” The task is doubtless made easier as it’s impossible to wipe the smile off his face and he doesn’t speak. Mobility and visibility are impeded, though, and Nigel talks about one team member’s experience: “Dean walked around Cardiff City Stadium one day, and the players were shooting the ball at him, trying to knock him over. You can’t see much through the mesh on the mouth, and the books for feet make it hard to walk as well. So, all the fans could see the players trying to do it, but Dean didn’t know. It’s just as well they’re rubbish at football because they kept missing.” What’s more, the costume is, as you’d expect, hot: “If you want to lose some weight, go in the costume – it is boiling”, Wheeler says. Digression over.)

That the communications and outreach programme is still going strong is surprising in the financial climate, as council communications budgets are often first to get the chop; Wheeler explains: “Although we’ve got budget cuts, I’ve said all along that the education and awareness budget isn’t cut, because that’s the only tool we’ve got. We’ve got no powers to force people to do it, so all we can do is raise awareness and educate.” He adds, however: “With the budgets changing again now – we just had the settlement and it’s horrendous – there’s no guarantee. I’ll fight it as much as I can, but at some stage, we’ll have to look at it.”

The council has certainly invested a lot in its landfill safaris, and on a wet and windy November day, Wheeler and I drive up into the Brecon Beacons so I can learn about the project. Open to all of RCT’s schools (124 of which are primaries), the safari programme sees small groups of children visit the site to learn about recycling, as well as the consequences of not recycling. At last count, 560 school and community groups had visited the site in 2012, and the primaries tend to block book the programme, sending all students up over the course of a week.

After I’ve had my own tour of the landfill, 12 wellie-clad primary school pupils show up at the education centre. “The kids lap it up, to be honest”, Wheeler’s told me beforehand, and, indeed, they are surprisingly excited to find themselves on a landfill site. With the staff member who normally does the opening talk on holiday, Rhys is not present, but all the kids say (in unison) that they know him. The follow-on question of “Do you recycle?” is met by a chorus of yeses, and the kids all look around to check up on their classmates when they’re asked if anyone doesn’t.

They’re then taken through commonly recyclable materials – guessing what they’re made out of and what they can be made into – before having a peak at the CCTV footage of line pickers in the on-site MRF, and being offered the chance to do the job themselves (in a scaled-down version next door). “My first job!” one girl says with a grin from ear to ear, as the group heads to the mini MRF to frantically sort recyclables amidst a bit of shrieking and dashing (they miss quite a lot of material, for the record).

They’re then split up into groups to patrol Litter Lane, watch informational videos, or go on ‘safari’. Four at a time, they go up to the top of the landfill in the safari vehicle, and the staff roll the windows down. “The kids react to the smell”, Wheeler explains (although it’s less smelly in the rain than it would be on a dry day). “We tell them that’s why they should recycle, and that’s the point that they understand. The smell gets them!”

Nearly every RCT pupil has now had the landfill safari experience and the next step, Wheeler says, is to make it more interactive. An anaerobic digestion plant will soon be built on the site, and so the classrooms will have to be moved, which Wheeler hopes will provide an opportunity to build an eco centre next door. This could potentially include the history of waste management and a simulator of the recycling experience from a bottle’s perspective. “I don’t know if I can secure the funding”, Wheeler notes, but he, Rhys and the rest of the team are doubtless ready to take on the next challenge...