Kerbside plastics recycling trial set to be rolled out city-wide

A recycling trial taking place in Swansea is set to be rolled out across the city later in 2016.

Swansea Council has been trialling a revised kerbside collection scheme for plastic materials which involve reusable pink sacks instead of disposable bags.

The trial has been in operation for more than 12 months, serving around 3,000 properties in the city.

Residents in the trial are now being asked to place loose plastic materials in the sacks which are then emptied by the council during the pink collection week.

A weighted base on the sacks also means they are not blown around the street during high winds.

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transportation, said: “Enabling residents to recycle their plastic has been very successful in terms of households participating. The next step has been to look at how we can get the best price for the plastic we collect. External companies that we work with would prefer loose plastic and so collecting it in this way opens up more markets for us.

“Tackling the issue of disposable pink bags being blown around streets has also been a concern and this trial is helping to solve that issue.

“During the trial we have also been able to get feedback from residents taking part so we can improve the sacks.”

All councils in Wales must recycle 64% of its waste by 2020. In Swansea, additional measures are being introduced to help reach the target.

Along with the plans to roll out the pink sack scheme city wide, the Council has also approved plans to convert some of its household waste recycling centres to recycling only.

This means residents will only be able to take recyclable materials to some of the sites and will be unable to dispose of black bags of non-recyclable waste.

Cllr Hopkins added: “Our household waste recycling sites provide an alternative method for residents to dispose of household items. What we’re hoping to do is encourage a change people’s behaviour so they use our kerbside collections more and  only use the HWRCs to drop off items which cannot be placed on the kerbside for collection.

“Black bags are collected from the kerb and every household has the opportunity to recycle at home. We hope this will increase our recycling performance by a few percent.”