It comes as part of the council’s future waste strategy, which sets out proposals to achieve a 70% recycling rate by 2025, and zero waste by 2050.
Nappy recycling will be one of many changes the council is making to its waste service over the next three years, along with moving from fortnightly to three-weekly collections.
Currently, the council provides a weekly food waste collection, along with a fortnightly collection of blue recycling bags and black bags.
However, it says on average, almost half (46%) of the contents in black bags are recyclable, and it hopes introducing a nappy collection will help cut contamination.
Recycling changes
The council has also announced that, in autumn 2022, the council will begin collecting unlimited blue recycling bags which contain paper, cardboard, plastic and cans, every week alongside weekly food waste collections.
Free blue bags, compostable food waste liners and food waste caddies will continue to be provided to every household.
From autumn 2022, crews will also start collecting glass from the kerbside every three weeks.
As a result of the increased recycling provision, the council will then reduce the frequency of its residual bin collection, to once every three weeks.
2024
By 2024, the council plans to have introduced electric refuse lorries that allow for kerbside sorting.
There are also proposals to implement textile, battery, and waste electrical and electronic equipment collections by this time.
Consultation
“There is more we can do which is why we have agreed changes that will support residents to recycle even more.”
– Cllr Hazel Evans, cabinet member for environment
Cllr Hazel Evans, cabinet member for environment, explained that the changes are being made following the responses to a consultation.
She said: “We want to thank our residents for every effort they are making to reduce, reuse and recycle – everybody’s collective efforts are making a big difference to the amount Carmarthenshire recycles. However, there is more we can do which is why we have agreed changes that will support residents to recycle even more.
“More than 4,000 people took part in a consultation on our future waste strategy, and the majority of people said they wanted to recycle more. We have listened to that feedback, and from next year we will be carrying out separate collections of nappies and glass so that there’s less to put in black bags, and from 2024 will be introducing more changes so that we can work towards achieving a 70 per cent recycling rate by 2025 and zero waste by 2050.”
Climate change
Cllr Ann Davies, cabinet Member for climate change, added: “As an authority we are committed to tackling climate change and reducing and offsetting carbon emissions with the aim of becoming net carbon zero by 2030.”
“We are also making changes so that our operations leave less of a carbon footprint – for example we have rationalised our routes so that our lorries do less mileage, and we are trialling electric powered lorries to carry out collections in the future.
“These, and other measures, have helped us reduce carbon emissions from our fleet by 19% since 2012/13, but we know there is more work to do.”
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