Since early April 2014, Swansea residents have been restricted to putting out a maximum of three 70-litre residual waste bags for collection by the council every fortnight with the aim of cutting landfill tax costs and encouraging residents to recycle more (see letsrecycle.com story).
Certain limit exemptions are available for households with multiple occupancy or residents disposing of nappies, but there have been few applications from residents for such exemptions, the council said.
Previously there had been no limit on the number of bags that residents could present for collection, but the council said that landfill disposal was costing as much as £4 million per year.
And, during the five months from April when the limit was introduced up to the end of August 2014, Swansea council claims that thousands of black bags have been prevented from landfill disposal compared to the same period in 2013.
With landfill tax in 2014/15 set at £80 per tonne, disposing of 3,600 tonnes of waste would have cost the council around £288,000 in landfill tax.
A spokesman for the council said it had been “pleasantly surprised” that there had been “compliance across the board” among residents and “very few” complaints about the changes, both directly to the council and through social and local media.
The spokesman added that levels of both mixed and green recycling had been increasing month-on-month this year and that the council was “optimistic” of recycling 56% of its waste in 2014/15. The recycling rate in Swansea in 2013/14 was 52.8%.
Impact
Swansea councillor Mark Thomas, cabinet member for environment and transportation, said: “Residents have been playing their part by sticking to the three bag limit and making use of the kerbside recycling services. It’s great news to know that this has had a positive impact in terms of waste disposal in the city.”
Cllr Thomas added: “We can’t become complacent about waste disposal. There is still much more to be done to comply with ever increasing targets and costs. We need all residents to do as much recycling as they can to help Swansea reach these targets.”
Statutory targets put in place by the Welsh Government require councils in Wales to achieve a recycling rate of 58% by 2016 or they could face fines.
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The black bag restriction was brought in after a council report in December 2013 warned that the authority could lose its £4.87 million Sustainable Waste Management Grant if it failed to meet statutory recycling targets for 2016.
The council operates in-house fortnightly kerbside collections of waste and recycling, with glass and metals in one green bag, paper and card in another green bag, as well as a separate pink bag for plastics.
Awareness
Since the introduction of the three-bag limit, the council has been promoting the initiative to residents via its ‘Keep it to 3’ communications campaign, with leaflets sent out to all households in Swansea.
Swansea households are each delivered two rolls of black bags once a year, which gives residents an allowance of one bag per fortnight, although extra bags can be purchased for 60p for an additional roll of 10.
The council also advises that each refuse sack put out for collection should not weigh more than 15kg.
Although there is no direct policing of the bag limit, residents leaving more than three bags out for collection have had notes stuck to each extra bag by refuse workers and the extra bags are then not collected. The notes state that the extra waste should be taken to the local HWRC or is left out for collection on the next cycle, although a council spokesman said that few notes have been issued.
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