The Welsh Government has issued guidance to councils in its Collections Blueprint 2025 “for all aspects of collection (household recycling and waste collections, reuse and recycling centres, bring sites, bulky collections, non-household recycling and waste collections, and litter collections) to be managed in an integrated way to deliver high-quality resource and management services at the lowest practicable unit costs”.
It says that for black bag, non-recyclable waste “with increased recycling and less material going into disposal significantly less residual capacity is needed” and that “collection once every three to four weeks is sufficient and more frequent collection should be avoided so that it does not undermine the effectiveness of the recycling service provided”.
It also says councils should consider weighing waste “for data collection for residual collections” and that that a limit of 60 litres of black bag waste a week is “sufficient”.
The Welsh Government say that 15 of Wales’ 22 councils already meet it’s collection recommendations for black bag waste of every 3 or 4 weeks.
In South West Wales, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire currently collect black bag waste every three weeks.
In Swansea, non-recyclable black bag waste is collected fortnightly on the green week.
Neath Port Talbot collects black bags (or one wheelie bin) fortnightly. Bridgend County also collects black bags fortnightly.
We asked Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend County Borough Council’s if they had plans to change their collection frequency of black bag non-recyclable waste to meet the Welsh Government’s guidance.
Swansea Council pointed us towards comments the leader of the council, Rob Stewart had made on social media that said “we are NOT moving to 3 week or monthly collections in Swansea.”
The leader went on to list what the council was doing instead to meet recycling targets saying: “We will continue to support residents to recycle and trial new recycling options. We are the best city for recycling in Wales, and one of the best recycling authorities in Wales – recycling over 70% of our waste. Wales is 3rd best in the world for recycling.
“We are recruiting more waste collectors and drivers. We have purchased a fleet of new collection vehicles. We are adding additional crews for cleansing and community clean up. We have created local tidy teams to deal with high priority litter and weed hotspots.”
It is unclear as to what action Welsh Government may take on authorities that do not follow its guidance.
Neath Port Talbot Council and Bridgend County Borough Council have not commented on the new guidance, leaving residents unsure if their collection routines will change.
Well done Swansea Labour council!
Let’s hope the other councils have some common sense. 42,171 fly-tipping incidents were reported in Wales in 2024. (So how many are not reported???) This is 6% more than the previous year, and 20% more than 2018-19. 70%, of fly-tipping incidents in Wales involve household waste. So councils picking up even less waste will obviously result in even more fly-tipping and more damage to our environment.