Red sack or red bag? That is the mix-up bin crews in Carmarthenshire met most often in the first week of the county’s new sorted recycling.
The two do different jobs. The single-use red bags are for soft plastics only: bread bags, carrier bags, crisp packets, frozen food bags, shrink wrap, pouches and sachets.
Once a red bag is full, tie it and put it inside the reusable red sack. That sack takes drink cans, food tins, yoghurt pots, punnets, clean foil trays and cartons, all loose.
Carmarthenshire Council has listed the snags its crews found in the service’s first week.
The new sacks arrived on Monday 2 November, when blue bags ended for a third of homes, mainly in the west of the county.
Brown paper is cardboard, not paper
Brown paper and parcel packaging have been turning up in the blue paper sack. The council says they count as cardboard and belong in the orange sack.
The blue sack is for letters, newspapers, magazines and white envelopes only.
Glass is catching people out too. Only whole bottles and jars go in the black box.
Drinking glasses, Pyrex dishes, vases, window glass and anything broken have to go to a recycling centre, or be wrapped and put in the black bag. Wrapping broken glass in newspaper or kitchen roll, or double-bagging it, protects crews from injury, the council says.
Get it wrong and you could get a tag
Crews may leave a tag or sticker on recycling with the wrong things in it. In some cases they will not take it until it has been sorted again, and that goes for homes still on blue bags too.
A sticker is the first rung of a ladder in the council’s new waste rulebook, which runs from a letter to a warden’s visit to fines.
Battery sacks should be attached with the Velcro strip only, never knotted to another sack or put inside one. Damaged batteries can start fires if they end up in the wrong part of the lorry, the council says.
Don’t report a missed bin before 2pm
Collections can come at any time between 6am and 2pm, so the council is asking people not to report a miss before then. Reports can be made from 2pm on collection day until 4pm the next working day, online or on 01267 234567.
The council says rounds may take time to settle and crews are working longer hours to finish them. It asks residents to check its waste disruptions page first.
There is still time to use the extra black bag.
Homes whose first black bag collection on the new rounds falls in the week beginning 9 November or 16 November can put out four bags, once. From the week beginning 23 November the limit is back to three.
Cllr Edward Thomas, the council’s cabinet member for transport, waste and infrastructure services, said: “Thank you to everyone who has embraced the new collections and shared feedback during this first week. Your support and patience are helping us make this change together.”
Anyone unsure where an item goes can look it up in the council’s A-Z recycling guide.
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