Council rejects Welsh Government’s call for collecting black bag waste every 3 or 4 weeks

The Welsh Government has issued guidance to councils in its Collections Blueprint 2025 “for all aspects of collection (household recycling and waste collections, reuse and recycling centres, bring sites, bulky collections, non-household recycling and waste collections, and litter collections) to be managed in an integrated way to deliver high-quality resource and management services at the lowest practicable unit costs”.

It says that for black bag, non-recyclable waste “with increased recycling and less material going into disposal significantly less residual capacity is needed” and that “collection once every three to four weeks is sufficient and more frequent collection should be avoided so that it does not undermine the effectiveness of the recycling service provided”.

It also says councils should consider weighing waste “for data collection for residual collections” and that that a limit of 60 litres of black bag waste a week is “sufficient”.

The Welsh Government say that 15 of Wales’ 22 councils already meet it’s collection recommendations for black bag waste of every 3 or 4 weeks.

In South West Wales, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire currently collect black bag waste every three weeks.

In Swansea, non-recyclable black bag waste is collected fortnightly on the green week. 

Neath Port Talbot collects black bags (or one wheelie bin) fortnightly. Bridgend County also collects black bags fortnightly.

We asked Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend County Borough Council’s if they had plans to change their collection frequency of black bag non-recyclable waste to meet the Welsh Government’s guidance.

Swansea Council pointed us towards comments the leader of the council, Rob Stewart had made on social media that said “we are NOT moving to 3 week or monthly collections in Swansea.”

The leader went on to list what the council was doing instead to meet recycling targets saying: “We will continue to support residents to recycle and trial new recycling options. We are the best city for recycling in Wales, and one of the best recycling authorities in Wales – recycling over 70% of our waste. Wales is 3rd best in the world for recycling.

“We are recruiting more waste collectors and drivers. We have purchased a fleet of new collection vehicles. We are adding additional crews for cleansing and community clean up. We have created local tidy teams to deal with high priority litter and weed hotspots.”

It is unclear as to what action Welsh Government may take on authorities that do not follow its guidance.

Neath Port Talbot Council and Bridgend County Borough Council have not commented on the new guidance, leaving residents unsure if their collection routines will change.

#blackBags #BridgendCountyBoroughCouncil #NeathPortTalbotCouncil #nonRecyclableWaste #Recycling #SwanseaCouncil #WelshGovernment

Council says it’s taking ‘positive action’ to improve waste and recycling collections

Swansea Council says its recruiting more waste staff and ensuring back-up staff are available to plug any gaps in the teams. This includes having more agency staff available and other resources to bolster the workforce.

The move follows complaints from residents about missed and delayed household waste and recycling kerbside collections.

The council says the extra staff will be in place within the next few weeks. In the meantime, if there are any missed collections residents are being asked to leave their waste on the kerbside as the council will return the next working day or as soon as possible after.

Cllr Cyril Anderson, the council’s Cabinet Member for Community, said, “There have been some operational problems with our waste collections recently and we understand the problems this causes for residents.

“I want to apologise to everybody who has been affected by missed waste collections and to reassure our residents that we are determined to improve the service as quickly as possible.

“We are recruiting significant numbers of new staff into our waste team and intend to supplement them with even further resources in the coming weeks and months to ensure collections can be completed on the stated day.

“It may take a few weeks to introduce the extra resources, so if your bin collection is missed, please leave them on the kerbside and we’ll do everything we can to collect them the next working day or as soon as possible.

“We will continue to update residents, and we are grateful for their patience and understanding during the next few weeks.”

#blackBags #CllrCyrilAnderson #kerbsideCollection #Recycling #Swansea #SwanseaCouncil

Council issues apology after missed Christmas recycling collections

Carmarthenshire council apologised for “significant disruptions” to its waste and recycling collections during and after the Christmas and New Year holiday.

The council said its delivery of collections this Christmas period had “fallen short” of the service levels residents expect and what the Authority wishes to deliver.

The Authority said it is working hard, directly with its crews, to rectify the situation as soon as possible.  

The council added that whilst bank holiday waste collection services have had multiple challenges for a number of years, the County Council has undertaken trials of various solutions to improve collection performance.  However, the main challenge remains in staff availability.

The council said its operational workforce has no contractual obligation to work either on a bank holiday, or the weekend following, and it has struggled to obtain sufficient levels of resource across the county to deliver certainty of service.

The council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, Waste and Infrastructure Services – Cllr Edward Thomas said: “I wholeheartedly sympathise with our residents that have been affected by the disruption to the bin collections over the past few weeks and understand their frustrations.

“Please be assured that we are working diligently to catch up on all missed collections and our officers are looking at all possible solutions to prevent this level of disruption from happening again. We have committed to engaging with staff and trade unions to understand how we can provide certainty of service for future bank holidays and we will develop a detailed plan that balances operational challenges, staff views and the needs of the community alongside the financial implications. 

“This Christmas, we have in most parts successfully completed the collections of our residual waste (black bag) and AHP (nappy waste) collections. However, the recycling (blue bag and food waste) collections have been challenging. This is partly due to the substantial recycling volumes during the festive period, which were expected. However, the issue was compounded by staff absence levels, increased vehicle breakdowns, and delays at our transfer stations all leading to widescale service failure across the county.

“Once again, I would like to reiterate my apologies to affected residents and thank them for their understanding and patience during this challenging period for our recycling and waste service.”

The council is asking residents to log any missed collections on their website to address the issue more efficiently and ensure waste is collected as soon as possible.

(Lead image: Carmarthenshire Council)

#blackBags #blueBags #Carmarthenshire #CarmarthenshireCouncil #kerbsideCollection #Recycling