The move, which was rubber-stamped by council officials last month, makes Powys the second local authority in Wales to subscribe to three weekly waste collections after Gwynedd.
The neighbouring authority phased in its new collection regime from October 2014 with a view to saving around £350,000 per year in reduced service costs (see letsrecycle.com story).
Under a similar system in Powys, householders will retain wheeled 120 and 180-litre refuse bins and purple sacks, but see collection frequency reduced from fortnightly to once every three weeks. The council will maintain weekly rounds for dry recyclables and food waste.
The measure has been approved in order to help Powys generate service savings of over £480,000 per year.
It is also considered the reduction in refuse collection frequency could help boost Powys’ recycling rate to help meet the Welsh Government’s 64% target by 2020. In 2014/15, the council recycled 52.1% of its waste.
Three-weekly collections were put to Powys residents in an online consultation launched during the summer.
Frequency
A report issued to the council highlighted the responses, with 66% of the 1,781 residents surveyed arguing they would find it hard to manage with the reduction in frequency.
But, the report adds that over 40% of householders using the smaller 120-litre residual bins issued by the council said they would be able to cope with the change. A further 40% said they would need to upgrade to the 180-litre bin to accommodate the change, while the remaining 17% were unsure.
The council highlighted statistics showing 87% of households found it very or fairly easy to recycle their waste using the separate boxes provided for paper, plastics, glass and food waste.
Welsh Government analysis of the composition of residual bins in Powys also found 32.81% of material within wheeled bins and purple sacks used by residents can be recycled.
With the first collections under the regime beginning next Monday (November 23), many residents in Powys received their last fortnightly collections earlier this month. Households with nappy waste are eligible for additional capacity.
‘Pressures’
Commenting on the changes at the end of October, cabinet member for environmental services, councillor John Powell said: “The service is facing the twin pressures of finding significant financial savings as part of the council’s overall budget strategy and meeting increasingly challenging recycling targets set by the Welsh Government, with severe financial penalties if we fail.
“Moving to a three weekly rubbish collection system is designed to ensure that even more of our waste is recycled and deliver savings. There is a long way to go to meet the next Welsh Government target and there will be even tougher limits in years to come.”
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