Recycling rates in Bridgend have “soared” after new measures, including restrictions on the amount of waste that residents can throw away, were introduced by the council last summer.
According to Bridgend county borough council, the area’s annual recycling rate has increased to 68.5% for 2017/18 from 58% in 2016/17.
Bridgend county borough council reports that recycling rates have “soared” after the introduction of a new recycling service in June
This puts the local authority ahead of the Welsh Government’s next statutory target of 64% recycling in 2019/20.
Limit
In June 2017, the council introduced a two bin bag limit on the amount of waste that residents can throw out each fortnight. Previously, the council carried out weekly recycling collections as well as fortnightly refuse collections, and the number of bin bags that residents could put out was unlimited.
The authority also introduced a separate collection for absorbent hygiene products, and gave residents new recycling containers to make it easier for them to recycle.
Collections are carried out by Kier – the company’s contract was extended by seven years to 2024 last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
‘Big changes’
Commenting on the result, Councillor Hywel Williams said: “We brought in our new recycling and waste arrangements last June because our old kerbside system wouldn’t have done enough to help meet these tough new recycling targets.
“With the old system in place, we were only just achieving the current 58% recycling target, but we knew that we needed big changes to push the rate higher and reduce the amount of rubbish that we’re throwing into landfill.
Between April 2017 and March 2018 residents recycled 30.9% more plastics and metals in their blue recycling sack compared with the previous 12 months
“The introduction of the new system hasn’t been without its faults, but its impact is loud and clear as we’ve recorded our highest ever annual recycling rate.”
Between April 2017 and March 2018, the borough’s 63,600 households recycled 34.7% more food waste than during the previous twelve months, the council reports.
And, the local authority said that the amount of paper being recycled shot up by 35.9%, while residents recycled 30.9% more plastics and metals in their blue recycling sacks. Homes also recycled 13.9% more glass and the total amount of cardboard recycled increased by 3%.
The garden waste tonnage rose “dramatically” by 43.2% compared to the previous year, and a total of 755 tonnes of absorbent hygiene products were picked up via the new purple bag collections, the authority notes.
Currently residual waste is sent to landfill, while recycling is processed in different ways.
‘Desired effect’
Cllr Williams is keen to advocate a restricted residual waste system for households.
“Many politicians told us that the two bag limit wouldn’t work, but residents have proved them wrong.”
Cllr Hywel Williams
Bridgend county borough council
“Many politicians told us that the two bag limit wouldn’t work, but residents have proved them wrong,” he said. “As shown here in Bridgend county borough, and in many other local authorities, placing limits on waste certainly has the desired effect in making people consider whether or not they can be doing more to cut down on their waste and recycle as much as possible.”
“Before, it was too convenient for people to put whatever they wanted in the bin, and many weren’t going to the effort of recycling certain materials because they didn’t need to. Now, residents are changing their habits, realising that it’s quite easy to get into a greener routine.”
The Welsh Government has also set a target for all Welsh councils to achieve a 70% recycling rate by 2024-25. Failure to meet those targets will see local authorities face “heavy fines” of around £100,000 for every one per cent they fall short.
The post Residual waste limits boost recycling in Bridgend appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com General
