Recycling system needs fine-tuning
THE jury is out in Llandaff on the new recycling trial. Well, it’s called a trial but many of us suspect that Cardiff council’s consultation exercises have a predetermined outcome.
Residents of 4,000 homes in Llandaff, Radyr, Pentwyn and Trowbridge can no longer use the green recycling bags like elsewhere in Cardiff. My street is part of this “trial”. Instead of the green bags I now have to divide our recyclables between a red sack, a blue sack and a blue plastic caddy. The black waste bin, green bin for garden waste, brown caddy for food waste, and yellow/purple hygiene bags remain as before. It’s quite a rainbow collection.
A few days ago I received a letter from the council saying how successful it has been. Personally, I don’t think that this is because the recyclables are being divided between three containers but because for the first time ever the council has actually issued us with a very specific list – this should have happened years ago. But what has confused and annoyed many residents in our area is seeing that the contents of the red sacks and the blue sacks, that we so carefully divided, being emptied into the same section of the vehicle that collects them.
Another bugbear is that the blue and red sacks let in the rain; damp causes delays in sorting paper and cardboard and can completely ruin it. Also, neither of these sacks is animal proof and so they are open to contamination.
This scheme is also causing difficulties for residents with mobility problems in some areas of Danescourt. Some houses and flats are not situated on roads. I know residents who live up to 50 metres from the road where they have to deposit up to six containers. Now the council will tell you that they have a scheme to help these residents. All they need to do is to register with the council and receive orange stickers to go on their bins. The refuse worker will then have instructions to go to the property and collect the bins – except they never go, despite many complaints.Fortunately the residents I know in this situation have family to help, but not everyone does.
Personally, I want to do everything I can to help with recycling, as do most people and this could be an excellent scheme but it needs some improvements, starting with rain and animal proof containers. And once all the waste vehicles have been adapted, presumably all our sorting work won’t be destroyed. But finally, the waste department needs to actually implement its theoretical scheme for helping residents with mobility issues because this has not been working for years.
Judith Allan Danescourt, Cardiff