Welsh council defends move to cut residual waste

Monmouthshire council has defended its decision to restrict the number of refuse sacks it makes available to residents, in a bid to reduce the amount of residual waste is sends to landfill.

The South Wales local authority hit the headlines this weekend after critics claimed that the initiative could lead to an increase in fly-tipping.

However, the council says that the move is necessary to encourage residents to recycle more, as significant levels of recyclable material currently being placed in residual waste sacks.

Under the changes, which begin on July 1, residual waste will only be collected when it is placed in grey sacks, with a maximum of two collected per household per fortnight.
Households with more than five residents are able to apply for extra refuse sacks, but the council has said these will only be available to households which carry out the full range of recycling services. Extra sacks will also be collected during the Christmas period.

Residents are provided with red and green bags, which are used for dry recyclables including paper, card, glass, plastics and metal cans, and are collected weekly and food waste is also collected weekly. Residents are entitled to recycle garden waste, but the council is also introducing a charge of 8 per year for the service, which will apply from July.

Costs

Monmouthshire has made the change to the amount of sacks available for residual waste in order to reduce the amount of material it is sending to landfill, which it claims is costing around 3million per year.

And, according to the council, a recent composition analysis that it carried out on waste from 200 households has shown that as much as 70% of the waste its residents dispose of via black sacks could be recycled with food and paper among the most commonly discarded materials.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Rachel Jowitt, the councils waste strategy and resources manager dismissed concerns that the move would see an increase in fly tipping in the region.

She said: We dont want to have to fine residents who arent recycling enough, but we will be reviewing how effective this scheme has been. We know from our analysis that for most householders it is achievable for them to increase their recycling.

We wont tolerate fly tipping and it is our view that if people are driving elsewhere to fly tip, they may as well be taking their waste to one of our four recycling centres across the county. Our plan is to have a 60% overall recycling rate by the end of the year.

According to the latest data made available by the Welsh Government, Monmouthshire achieved a 55% composting and recycling rate in the 12 months up to December 2012. However Welsh councils are required to increase their recycling rates beyond 58% by 2014/15.