The local authority in South Wales said its move from fortnightly to three-weekly, kerbside-separated collections – which began their roll-out last week (October 26) – is supported by the Welsh Government as part of statutory targets to boost recycling in Wales.
However, many Blaenau Gwent residents have hit out at new stackable ‘Trolibocs’ recycling containers being rolled out as part of the changes for being “completely inconvenient”. The residents say that the stackable boxes “are bulky and take up too much space to store” and have signed an online petition, which at the time of writing has attracted 2,473 signatures.
The council said today that it is “doing all it can to solve the problems and concerns we are receiving from the public” andthat it will “discuss alternative arrangements” where the Trolibocs “are not appropriate”.
New service
The new service sees collections of both black bag waste as well as recycling – separated into three containers – move from fortnightly to every three weeks, with food waste still collected on a weekly basis.
As part of the new service, residents have been given Trolibocs – a set of three separate boxes which can be stacked up together and wheeled around – which are manufactured by Straight plc, part of the OnePlastics Group.
The top blue-lidded box is for mixed paper and the middle box with the red lid should contain plastic and metal packaging, while the bottom, green-lidded box is intended for a mixture of glass and cardboard.
The two bottom boxes have a capacity of 44 litres, while the box at the top has a 40-litre capacity, meaning a total capacity of 128 litres capacity for recyclable materials every three weeks.
The changes have been introduced as a way to save money while also boosting the council’s recycling rate in order to meet statutory recycling targets in Wales, with the authority needing to recycle 58% of its waste by March next year or face financial penalties.
In addition, council documents highlight the need to comply with European legislation stating that paper, plastics, metal and glass should all be collected separately to increase recycling material quality.
Petition
The petition was launched last month by resident Alison Powles, who claims that because many houses in the area are terraced with small rear lanes, the collection vehicles and the new stackable boxes are too big.
The petition states: “The trolleys provided are impractical and once filled, you cannot add any excess recycling, as you currently can by simply adding another bag.”
It adds that “there is nothing wrong with the current system. The new changes are supposed to encourage more people to recycle but will ultimately prevent people from recycling who have always supported the recycling provision in the area.”
Other commenters on the petition state that they found the old recycling system “much easier to understand” and that the new system will cause “mayhem fly tipping”.
Blaenau Gwent
Responding to residents’ concerns today, Blaenau Gwent council leader Hedley McCarthy said the authority is in “continuous contact with Welsh Government and various Assembly Members and ministers with regard to Blaenau Gwent ceasing to operate our old co-mingling system because it does not fit Welsh Government standards. The new scheme, which began this week, is supported by Welsh Government and fits the blueprint that it has outlined for recycling across Wales.”
Cllr McCarthy said: “Our main priority is to help and encourage everyone in Blaenau Gwent to recycle as much as possible, so we are obviously concerned about the problems that some of our vulnerable residents are facing and we will continue to seek solutions for these people. Where the new recycling scheme and boxes are not appropriate we will discuss alternative arrangements in order that these people can continue to recycle, and we currently have people out in the community at the moment to address these issues.”
OnePlastics Group, the parent company of Straight and MGB Plastics, has also been contacted by letsrecycle.com and a comment is expected.
Blaenau Gwent county borough council is not the only authority in Wales to use Trolibocs. Conwy county borough council in north Wales has also introduced the wheeled container system after a Welsh Government-backed trial (see letsrecycle.com story).
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