CLINK OR STINK: Swansea bin crews will be checking your black bags from this autumn

Swansea households who put bottles, cans or food in their black bags will be warned, then fined, under a “clink or stink” campaign starting this autumn.

Bin crews will be checking sacks for anything that should have gone in the recycling or the food caddy. The council says it will “first engage, encourage and if no improvement enforce”.

Cllr Cyril Anderson, cabinet member for community services, confirmed the campaign in a written answer to councillors ahead of Thursday’s full council meeting.

He was replying to Uplands councillors Peter May and Stuart Rice, who had asked for a trial of gull-proof sacks after birds kept ripping open bags and scattering food across pavements.

The answer was no. “There is no reason therefore for people to put their food waste in black bags,” Cllr Anderson said. “If residents fully used the food waste bins provided, and please remember additional caddies or outside bins can be requested, then this issue would not arise.”

Stronger bags would be “costly”, he added, and would reward people who don’t want to recycle “at a time of financial restraint”.

Every home in Swansea gets a weekly food waste collection, with a small kitchen caddy and a larger outdoor bin, both free to replace or add to on the council website.

The gull problem is real: crews are sent back days later to clear what the birds have strewn about, which is the extra work Cllr May was trying to prevent.

The council’s answer is that the fix is at the kitchen bin, not the kerb.

Enforcement under its Keep Recycling Out policy starts with a visit and advice. Households that ignore repeated warnings can be given a fixed penalty notice.

Swansea’s black bag rules are already among the tightest in Wales: three bags a fortnight, a limit in place since 2014, with exemptions for large families, houses in multiple occupation and homes with nappies or pet waste.

The council has resisted going further. Last year it rejected Welsh Government guidance to move to three- or four-weekly black bag collections, which Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire already run, with council leader Rob Stewart saying the city was “not moving to 3 week or monthly collections”.

It has the results to point to. On Welsh Government figures published in February, Swansea’s households recycled 72% of their waste in 2024/25, third of the 22 councils, which the council says makes it the best-performing city in Wales.

Every tonne of food that goes into a black bag instead of the caddy costs the council in disposal charges and drags that rate down, which is the money argument behind the campaign.

Cllr Anderson has not said where the checks will start or when the first bags will be opened. The question was answered in writing, so it will not be debated on Thursday.