Residents’ views sought on improving Neath Port Talbot’s recycling rates

The decision to consult to improve recycling was taken as part of the council’s Waste Strategy Action Plan which was approved in 2023.

Members of the council’s Environment, Regeneration and Steetscene Scrutiny Committee will be provided with draft proposals for the consultation and an update on progress on the Waste Strategy Action Plan at their meeting on Friday, April 19th  2024.

The rising Welsh Government recycling targets are set to make our environments greener and cleaner with Wales currently among the top three recycling nations in the world and by far the best in Britain.

If the Welsh Government recycling performance targets are not met, councils face huge potential fines.

Neath Port Talbot, with the help of our residents, now has a creditable recycling rate approaching 68% though there is no certainty the target of recycling 70% of all our waste will be met.

Welsh Government targets will only get more challenging in order to achieve zero waste by 2050, therefore further action must be considered to improve recycling rates across the county borough.

Cllr Scott Jones, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Streetscene, said: “In approving the Waste Strategy Action Plan last year, we made it clear we would be consulting our residents on a range of options available to us to increase the level of recycling further. For example, enabling residents to mix paper and cardboard in the same recycling container would free up one container for the collection of small electrical items (e.g. toasters, shavers, kettles etc.).

“It is important we hear from as many residents as possible so we can design a recycling collection system that works for people.

“Measures to encourage more recycling are essential, not only for us to avoid damaging fines from the Welsh Government, but also for us to have cleaner, better places to live in and for Wales to continue to be one of the best recycling nations on Earth.

“We’d also like to know what people think about collecting black bin/black bag waste three weekly.”

Alongside three weekly collections of black bins/black bags, there would be separate collections of Absorbent Hygiene Products (e.g. nappies) available to all properties, as opposed the current partial coverage.  Furthermore, if a small annual charge was introduced for Green Waste collections they could become weekly (e.g. £26 per year / 50p per week for up to 6 garden waste bags per week, or £40 per year / 77p per week for up to 10 bags per week).

Cllr Jones added: “We made it clear in putting our waste strategy together that we would not alter the frequency of these collections without further consultation with our communities.  For some households, the level of recycling means that there is little to collect in terms of black bin/black bag waste, but we know that this is not the case everywhere.

“To be clear, introducing three weekly collection of black bin/black bags is not in our plans for 2024-25, but we would like to know what people think the impact would be if this was an option we needed to consider in the future.”

The draft proposals to improve recycling will be considered at the meeting of the scrutiny committee on Friday, April 19th with a report to follow. No decisions will be made at this meeting as this is a scrutiny committee not a cabinet committee.