South Wales Echo

Council reviews way recycling is collected in city

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FURTHER changes could be made to the way recycling collection­s are carried out in Cardiff.

Officers say the next phase of getting the city’s recycling rates up could be to make changes to how it is collected.

Under the tenure of former environmen­t boss Bob Derbyshire, the size of wheelie bins for non-recyclable waste was cut in a bid to encourage people to sort their waste more effectivel­y.

Bespoke bin bags were introduced along with green bins for garden waste at a number of homes.

A report going to councillor­s today says a business case should be put together about the cost of council staff sorting recycling at the kerbside or introducin­g reusable recycling containers. Another option could be “twin stream” recycling where glass and plastic is collected separately from card and papers.

But officers will look at the impact of traffic potentiall­y increasing behind the slower kerbside collection­s.

Changes – which are not detailed in the report – to recycling at flats or houses with multiple residents would also be assessed in the business case.

Another proposal being looked at is to set up a regional recycling facility rather than each council having its own.

The report reads: “The programme will initially seek expression­s of interest from surroundin­g and regional local authoritie­s; test the market appetite for such a facility and most importantl­y what materials do the end processes seek in order to scope the facility requiremen­ts.”

The new cabinet member with responsibi­lity for the environmen­t, Michael Michael, meeting.

The council is on course to meet its Welsh Government target of recycling 58% of waste but the report says that with a growing population “constant thought” is needed.

At the same meeting, councillor­s will be told that more than 2,000 people were given fines for littering in Cardiff last year.

Between April 2016 and 2017 there were 2,075 recorded cases of fixed penalty fines being given out.

The highest number was for breaching section 46 of the Environmen­tal Protection Act 1990, which requires people to put waste out for collection in the right form.

There were 28 fines handed out for dog fouling, 26 for dropping litter from a vehicle, and 260 described as being “smoking-related”.

Another 294 were handed out for will speak at the breaching rules around transferri­ng waste.

The council’s environmen­tal scrutiny committee will this week hear about plans for the Labour-run council to tidy up the city.

The report by officers to councillor­s says that the issues in Cardiff are dog fouling, collecting rubbish from flats, and rubbish in student areas.

It also says that ensuring people keep the areas around their own homes rubbish-free is also a difficulty in terms of enforcemen­t.

A report going to today’s committee says the council has responsibi­lity to empty 1,700 bins and look after 1,088km of roads and 1,900km pavements.

Running the waste service cost £6m in 2016-17.

In 2016-17, the number of fly-tipping incidents dealt with was 7,958 and the authority say all but 131 of those were dealt with in five days.

The number of fly-tipping incidents went up between 2015-16 and 2016-17 by more than 1,700. of

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