Residents recycle their way into the future

Denbighshire residents can be proud of the fact they have one of the best recycling rates in Wales. More than 64% of waste is recycled from households across the county.  

How the world deals with its waste is changing rapidly.  More and more manufacturers are now demanding the highest quality paper, card, plastic containers, cans, tins, glass bottles and jars so they can use them to make new products.

The Council has recently identified a way to help overcome the ever spiralling costs of managing Denbighshire’s waste.  Not only will the proposed new system help everyone to recycle more things more often, it will ensure we collect the best possible quality of recycling which we intend to sell to UK based firms who turn your items into new products. This is much better for the environment because these products can be recycled over and over again.  It also provides a valuable income to help us empty over 4 million waste containers every year.

We gave residents the opportunity to tell us what they thought about the newly proposed service. The Recycle More, Waste Less Survey has had an overwhelming response.  Over 2,300 of you responded online and 150 people completed surveys at libraries and One Stop Shops.  This information is extremely important and will help inform the decision the Council will soon have to make about the future design of our waste and recycling services.

Our proposed new service will include:

• A new weekly collection for recyclables such as paper, glass, cans, and plastic, collected at the same time as your food waste, with new and easy to use containers to store some recycling separate from each other.
• A new fortnightly collection for clothes, batteries and small electrical items
• By expanding the range of items you can recycle from your homes, and collecting them more often, there will only be small amounts of non-recyclable waste left.  We are therefore proposing to change the collection of non-recyclable waste to every four weeks.
• Instead of your current 140 litre black bin, we will provide the option of having a new, larger 240 litre black bin.

We are confident that Denbighshire households will be able to rise to the challenge, but there will be some circumstances where this might be more difficult. Therefore, we are already looking at:

• A new free service for waste such as nappies and incontinence products
• Additional waste and recycling containers for larger households
• Continuing with offering assisted collections for those that need them
• Alternative recycling containers for people who require adaptations to help them manage their waste, or for households with restricted storage or access.

We would like to thank everyone who got involved in the survey or attended on the drop-in sessions.  That won’t be end of the discussion.  If the council makes a decision to change our current waste and recycling service, there will be many opportunities for residents to join in the debate as we plan and implement those changes.   The earliest that any changes would be made to the current service would be spring 2020.