Black bags taken to city recycling sites full of recyclables

Residents in Swansea are being advised to save themselves a trip to the tip and recycle household waste at the kerbside.

Swansea Council wants more residents to make more use of the kerbside recycling services to dispose of their waste instead of putting recyclable material in black bags and taking them to one of the five household waste recycling centres in the city.

Latest statistics have highlighted that around 40% of waste taken to the HWRCs is contained in black bags and approximately 70% of what’s in the black bags can be recycled.

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transportation: “Residents in Swansea have assisted us in meeting the latest recycling target of 58% but it’s fairly clear that we can do a lot more.

“The majority of residents are using our kerbside recycling services well and putting out limited numbers of black bags.

“We also know that we get regular visitors to our recycling sites and that they are disposing of black bag waste that contains recyclable materials.

“There is no need to do this. We collect a wide variety of waste materials from the kerb. Residents could save themselves a trip to the tip and simply improve the way they recycle. And it’s free.”

The Council has recently published a consultation that is seeking the views of residents about how they use HWRCs.Five sites are situated across Swansea at Llansamlet, Penlan, Clyne, Tir John and Garngoch. All councils in Wales must recycle 64% of its waste by 2020.

Cllr Hopkins added: “We still have a lot to do to boost our recycling performance and ensure we reduce the amount we spend annually dumping waste at landfill. One of the solutions is to look at how our household waste recycling centres operate day to day.”

Residents can find the consultation online at www.swansea.gov.uk/wasteconsultation