benefits
- Reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators
- Conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals
- Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials
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- Saves energy
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change
- Helps sustain the environment for future generations
- Helps fight climate change
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Did you know - It is estimated that 80% of the municipal solid waste produced by Wales can be recycled or composted through current processes, by taking part in recycling you can help to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
The average person* produces around 488kg of waste (this includes recycling as well as residual waste). Around 170kg of this could be recycled, but is currently sent for disposal instead.
*Total waste per person 2021/22
What can you recycle? - Download the printable PDF
Where can you get recycling bags?
Benefits of Garden/Green Waste Recycling
- The garden waste the Council collects is, where possible, composted and used in parks, allotments and land reclamation schemes across Rhondda Cynon Taf.
- About 10% of the contents of your black bag/bin waste is garden/green waste. If these items are put out in your black bag/bin they will end up at landfill sites where they cause polluting gases as they rot and biodegrade. Please don’t put them in your black bag or bin - recycle them instead in your green sack.
Please keep garden waste separate from your normal recycling as garden waste is recycled differently in your green sack.
Please remove all earth/soil, rubble and stones from your green waste as we are currently unable to recycle these as part of your garden waste.
The Council is unable to collect old or damaged sheds, patio sets and children’s outdoor toys
at the kerbside.
Sign up and register for Green Waste Recycling
What garden waste can you recycle?
Where can you get garden waste recycling bags?
Benefits of Recycling Food Waste
- Save money. If you only buy the food you need, you will spend less at the supermarket. Your food waste recycling is contained in just one bin so you can clearly see the amount of food you are wasting and reduce shopping accordingly.
- Reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill resulting in the reduction of landfill gasses distributed into the environment.
- Create "green energy". Recycled food waste can be converted into beneficial compost and energy.
Please don't put plastic bread packaging in your food waste bin and only use Council issued food waste recycling bags as they are biodegradable.
Sign up for food waste recycling
What food waste can you recycle?
Where can you get food waste recycling bags?
Benefits of Nappy Recycling
- By the time a child reaches two and a half, they will have used an average of 6,500 nappies – which equates to over 10 tonnes of waste.
- Disposable nappies are currently filling up landfill sites across the UK at a staggering rate of 3 billion a year and 8 million a day – that’s a lot of stinky packages left to rot, so it’s important that people recycle these instead of putting them in with their general waste
- Disposable nappies are made of plastics, elastics, adhesives, paper pulp, and chemicals which do not easily bio-degrade and could also leak toxins into the ground. In fact it’s estimated that it could take hundreds of years (some guess at more than 500 years) before nappies begin to break down and degrade.
- In addition to this, the soiling in them means that as they rot in landfills, methane - a greenhouse gas twice as dangerous as Carbon Dioxide - is released, contributing to global warming. In fact, the number of disposable nappies used in a child’s life accounts for as much as 630kg of methane – which is as much as a car would use over 1800 miles.
Sign up and register for nappy recycling
Where does your recycling go?
Recycling in RCT is taken to the Amgen Cymru recycling sort centre in Llwydcoed, where it is sorted in to plastics, glass, paper and metal and put in to bales ready to be sent to specific recycling centres across the UK.
Community Recycling Centres
The Council boasts a number of Community Recycling Centres (CRCs), which are spread across the County Borough - making recycling even easier!
Find your nearest centre