Rhondda Cynon Taff drew up an action plan, 'Respecting Waste', which sets out solutions to the area's waste problems. But the plan was overtaken by a Welsh National Assembly investigator's sudden and unexpected recommendation that disposal of household refuse at the Nant y Gwyddon landfill site should stop immediately.
Despite this, the council said that its waste strategy still holds good, and the action plan and timetable published before the investigator's report demonstrate the council's commitment to end the dumping of household waste at local landfill sites. Following the investigator's report, the Council took immediate action to direct household waste away from the Nant y Gwyddon site for disposal at alternative locations.
Council Leader, Pauline Jarman said: “We consulted local people about our waste strategy proposals earlier and they told us they support recycling, composting and an end to the importing of waste. Our first recycling trials were successful and on 2 January 2002 we introduced recycling kerb collections for 25,000 homes. We are now increasing this so that 60,000 homes will have this service from September 2002. We are also planning to set up a new materials recycling centre very soon.”
The action plan developed by a Community Waste Forum drawn from all sectors of the community was published in December. It put forward practical solutions to the area's waste problems and several of its recommendations are now in place. These include the start of kerbside composting collections, subsidised home composters, a medium scale community composting scheme and a large scale council composting scheme. Several possible sites suitable for the aerobic composting of green waste in windrows have been identified, and the council is investigating in-vessel composting options to deal with kitchen and catering waste.
In addition, a phased increase in new recycling sites is well underway and an existing council-run materials recycling facility (MRF) is currently being replaced by a much larger facility. Initially, this will be a basic hand sorting operation with magnetic separation, but a proposed large-scale mechanised installation should be set up within two years. Joint funding applications by the council and recycling partners have been made but consultation has shown residents overwhelmingly in favour of sites run by the council.
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