Blue bags are on the way out for around a third of homes in Carmarthenshire, replaced by a set of reusable colour-coded sacks that residents will sort their recycling into themselves.
Carmarthenshire Council says the switch — which it is calling Separated Recycling — starts in mid-to-late autumn, with homes in the west of the county going first.
The other two thirds keep their blue bags and the current mixed service until a second phase, which the council has not dated.
Nobody in the county escapes the reshuffle
But nobody in the county is untouched. Collection days for food waste, recycling, glass and black bags may change for every home, whether the service is changing or not.
The council says it reviewed its rounds at the same time as bringing in the new vehicles, so it only had to redraw them once. Among the factors it weighed, it says, were new housing, road changes, environmental law, carbon emissions — and pressure on its own budget.
Every household will get a letter over the summer confirming which group it is in, and a second in September confirming collection days with a calendar. A postcode checker is already live on the council’s website.
Five sacks — and a bag that goes inside one of them
Homes moving to the new service get a red sack for metals, plastics and cartons, an orange sack for cardboard, a blue sack for paper, a roll of red bags for plastic film and wrapping, and a small white sack for household batteries.
The red bags go inside the red sack, tied shut, rather than out on their own.
Plastic bags, wrapping and household batteries have not been collected from the kerbside before. Until the switch, residents are told to keep taking film to supermarket collection points, or bin it if they cannot.
Glass is the quiet winner
There is a gain buried in the detail. For homes moving to the new service, glass bottles and jars in the black box go from a three-weekly collection to a weekly one.
Food waste and recycling stay weekly. Black bags stay at up to three every three weeks. Garden waste, nappy and hygiene collections, bulky waste and the council’s Canolfan Eto reuse project are all unchanged.
The sacks land in August
The sacks and a year’s supply of food waste caddy liners will be delivered across several weeks in August and September, with an online delivery tracker going live on Monday 7 September.
The council suggests writing your address on the sacks in permanent marker so you can spot yours after collection — and passing spare blue bags to friends or family elsewhere in the county who are still on the old service.
Residents who need help carrying containers out can apply for assisted collections, and anyone already on that service keeps it automatically.
The pizza box problem
The council has published a full breakdown of what goes in each sack, and some of it runs against instinct.
Brown envelopes and brown paper go in the orange cardboard sack — not the blue paper sack with the rest of your post.
Wrapping paper is not recycled at all. Nor is any cardboard stained with food, oil or grease, which rules out most pizza boxes. Both go in black bags.
Yoghurt and cream pots go in the red sack. Their foil lids do not — they go in the black bag.
Shredded paper is only accepted in small amounts, and only inside a paper bag or envelope.
Polystyrene, fruit and veg netting, blister packs, plastic straws and disposable cutlery are all black-bag items. Hard plastics — garden chairs, plant pots, kitchen bins, Tupperware — have to go to a recycling centre.
The small white sack is for household batteries only: AAA, AA, C, D and 9V.
Vapes and e-cigarettes are barred from it, as are car batteries, chargers, watch and key-fob coin cells, and the rechargeable packs from laptops and power tools. All of those must go to a recycling centre.
Broken glass stays out of the black box. The council asks residents to wrap it in newspaper or double-bag it before it goes in a black bag, so crews are not cut.
Carmarthenshire is 19th in the queue
The change is driven by the Welsh Government‘s Collections Blueprint, the national template for kerbside sorting. The council says Carmarthenshire will be the 19th of Wales’ 22 local authorities to make the move — a system first introduced in Wales in the early 2000s.
It says councils can be fined for missing Welsh Government recycling targets, and that those costs can land on council taxpayers.
It also says the first phase deliberately starts in areas that are simpler to collect from, with fewer property types, and that phasing gives its depots time to build capacity.
Residents were last consulted on the changes in 2021, through a countywide survey.
Swansea and Neath Port Talbot got there first
Neighbouring authorities are further down the road. Swansea households were told in January to expect their own container overhaul.
Neath Port Talbot simplified its system in 2025. It is also putting the UK’s first all-electric bin lorry fleet on the road this summer.
Swansea hit a 72% recycling rate earlier this year and was named the best-performing city in Wales. That came as the country pushed its national record higher.
On black bags, Carmarthenshire is already where the Welsh Government wants councils to be — a three-weekly collection Swansea’s leader publicly refused to adopt last summer.
‘No need to take any action’
Cabinet member for transport, waste and infrastructure services Cllr Edward Thomas said sorting at the kerbside would improve the quality of the material collected.
“We are introducing the changes in phases to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible,” he said. “There is no need to take any action at this stage — we will contact every home directly with everything they need to know.”
Residents can sign up for free email or text collection reminders through the council’s My Hwb account, whichever service they are on.
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