Keep on mowing this Spring but remember there is a new bag in town to help you!
After a cold and wet winter, residents may be hoping for some early spring sunshine to help their gardens blossom.
Many residents will now start to head into their gardens for the first time in a few months to offer some much-needed tender loving care – but what do you do with the clippings, grass cutting and debris?
The green waste recycling scheme was reviewed last year as part of the Council’s ongoing commitment to climate change and recycling - The introduction of new sustainable and reusable green sacks will result in the Council reducing its overall plastic usage by around 3Million Clear bags annually.
The Council is reminding its residents that the Streetcare team will start collecting all their green waste weekly, from the kerbside as part of its summer weekly recycling collection, from Monday 28th March.
From cuttings to shrubs, flowers to twigs, residents can recycle all their gardening debris. All they need to do is place the green waste into their green, re-usable sack and leave it at the kerbside on their normal collection day.
Over 36,000 households have now registered for the scheme and almost 76,000 sacks have been delivered – it is estimated that almost 85% of RCT’s green waste recycling residents are now signed up and are ready for their Spring weekly collections. Clear recycling bags WILL NOT be collected and you must be registered for the scheme.
If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time and you can register for the FREE service, quickly and easily online at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/BrandNewBag. If you do not have access to online services you can call 01443 425001, between 08.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Residents will then receive their TWO FREE re-usable sacks to start green waste recycling.
Extra/replacement sacks are available but will be subject to a £3 charge per sack. This charge covers the cost of the sack only. Each sack is equivalent in size to two and half clear recycling bags.
Before the new sacks were introduced, the Council collected an average of around 8,200 tonnes of green waste from residents annually – this equates to 2,739,000 full recycling bags being collected!
Please ensure that you remove all earth/soil from your green waste as we are currently unable to recycle these as part of your kerbside green waste collection.
The sacks can be used for green waste, such as grass, cuttings, twigs cut to a manageable size and small vegetarian animal waste. The Council WON’T collect rubble, clodges or wood as part of this collection. Animal waste should only include sawdust/hay and not other animal waste such as dog waste and cat litter. The sacks MUST NOT be overfilled.
Green/garden waste can still be taken to one of the many Community Recycling Centres (CRCs) across Rhondda Cynon Taf, but it MUST NOT be in a clear recycling bag and tipped loose into the available container. All CRCs are now operating under winter opening hours - 8am to 5.30pm
Residents are being reminded to clearly label their sacks and that each sack is registered to an individual property and that the Council will only collect the number of sacks that are registered to a property. Crews will be making every effort to return the sacks to properties as securely as possible.
Steve Owen, Service Director for Streetcare Services said:
“I would like to thank residents for signing up to the scheme and joining us in our fight against Climate Change. The changes to the green waste collection service will help reduce the Council’s carbon footprint and bring us closer to our goal of recycling 80% of all household waste by 2024/25.
“More and more residents are taking advantage of our fantastic weekly kerbside recycling collection service. It is great that so many of our residents are enthusiastic about our environment.
“I urge all our residents who are not currently recycling to make the change to your habits and join your neighbours and friends and take your recycling efforts into your garden by recycling your green waste.”
“This small changes we all make will make a huge difference not just locally, but globally.
“The improved service uses the latest in-cab technology to improve collection routes and allow for an automated service and reduce the crews carbon footprint by only travelling to where they need to.”
Please note: The Council are unable to collect old or damaged sheds and patio sets. However, these along with other garden waste, including soil and earth, can be taken to one of the Community Recycling Centres, which will soon be operating under their spring/summer opening times (8am - 7.30pm) from Monday March 28th. Current winter opening times remain at 8am – 5.30pm until this date.
For further information please visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/BrandNewBag, email recycling@rctcbc.gov.uk, call 01443 425001 or follow the Council on Facebook/Twitter.
Posted on 23/03/2022