Rubbish tips in Wales are spoiling the environment (5)
I believe the answer is:
waste
'rubbish' is the definition.
(I know that rubbish can be written as waste)
'tips in wales are spoiling the environment' is the wordplay.
'tips in' suggests taking the first letters (only the tips of the words).
The initial letters of 'wales are spoiling the environment' is 'WASTE'.
(Other definitions for waste that I've seen before include "Fail to use (profitably)" , "Not use effectively" , "Spend to no purpose" , "Use to no purpose" , "''.... not, want not''" .)