Give your waste and recycling the royal treatment this Coronation Bank Holiday and recycle like the kings and queens that you are in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
King Charles III has always been a big supporter of environmental issues, particularly action against climate change. By choosing to give your recycling the royal treatment and thinking greener during your Coronation celebrations, residents can make a positive impact on the environment and enjoy the King’s celebration.
As well as recycling any extra packaging and food waste from your celebrations, think about how you can make your parties more sustainable.
- Use sustainable decorations: make them yourself or choose reusable or biodegradable ones. For example, you could make bunting out of old paper and include potted plants or flowers in your decorations, that can be planted afterwards.
- Choose sustainable transport: Ask guests to take public transport, walk, run, cycle or car share to the party.
- Serve sustainable local food and drinks: Source local and seasonal ingredients for the Coronation menu.
- Reduce waste: Provide recycling and food waste bins throughout the event and encourage guests to bring their own reusable water bottles, utensils and Tupperware.
- Less is more: Think about the amount of food that you buy and have on offer and whether it will all be needed. Consider offering leftover food to the wider community, friends/family or think about how they could be made into meals the next day – you can’t beat the old bubble and squeak! Anything that’s still leftover should be recycled in your food waste recycling caddy. You can sign up for FREE at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste
A useful toolkit is available here, with fun activities and recipe ideas - https://coronation.gov.uk/toolkit/.
A recent WRAP kerbside black bag analysis of Rhondda Cynon Taf highlighted that our black bag waste contained 39% of food waste items that could have been recycled! This is well above the all Wales figure of 25%!
By taking this food waste out of the black bag and putting it in to the weekly food waste recycling, we can help to hit the 70% recycling target set by the Welsh Government for 2024/25.
As part of the Council’s ongoing fight against climate change and recycling, the Council is continuing to improve its recycling and waste services. The introduction of sustainable and reusable green sacks for green waste collections has helped the Council to reduce its overall plastic usage by around three million clear bags annually. These changes to the green waste collection service, the trial of a re-suable dry recycling sack and the upcoming black bag and bin collection changes to three weekly are all helping to reduce the Council’s carbon footprint and bring us closer to hitting the Welsh Government recycling target of 70% by 2024/25.
There will be NO CHANGES to collections on Monday 8th May, so the Council is requesting that our residents grab their royal CLEAR recycling bags and food waste bags and recycle all their extra waste during their exquisite street parties and events.
The Council is reminding residents to ensure that ALL refuse and recycling (including nappies, green and food waste recycling) should be placed at its normal collection point by 7am on your normal collection days.
If the crews have not collected your refuse/recycling as planned, please leave it at the kerbside as they may be working additional hours to clear any backlog and they’ll get to you as soon as possible – the crews can work well into the evening during busy periods and extra staff can sometimes be called in to clear the items the next day.
If you are hosting a street party, please be mindful of the royal recycling trucks that need to access the streets. Please park your cars or royal carriages sensibly and ensure that decorations and or bunting across streets, does not block access for “Emergency Service Vehicle” and that it is immediately removable.
Residents can enjoy a waste-free bank holiday by recycling all their unavoidable food waste, extra plastic bottles, tubs and trays, metal cans, glass bottles, jars, cardboard packaging and lots more.
ALL Community Recycling Centres are open from 8am until 7.30pm every day over the royal bank holiday.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure, said:
“I'd like to wish all our residents a waste-free royal bank holiday and thank each and every one of them for supporting a greener future for RCT all year round.
"The bank holiday period means extra waste and it’s a great time to think green and recycle all the additional packaging, food, plastics and cans etc.
“Rhondda Cynon Taf Council continues to support people and is encouraging residents to keep up the good work all year round. The Council provides an accessible and innovative recycling service, complemented by ongoing public education and awareness-raising.
“More and more residents are taking advantage of our fantastic weekly kerbside recycling collection service.
“I urge all our residents who are not currently recycling to come together to UP our Recycling GAME - the changes that we all make to our habits now will ensure that we avoid significant fines and safeguard a brighter world for future generations – it’s a GAME we can’t afford to lose!
For more information and tips on recycling your bank holiday and royal party waste follow us on Facebook or Twitter or visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling.
Posted on 05/05/2023