This recycling week (16th-22rd October) we’re asking residents to join the national campaign ‘The BIG RECYCLING HUNT’ and the Wales Recycle campaign to ‘BE MIGHTY, RECYCLE’ for RCT!
Both campaigns aim to make us all stop and think about the items that we can and should all be recycling. The national campaign looks at the items that we sometimes overlook or forget that we can recycle – from aerosol cans to shampoo bottles, these items often, wrongly end up in our black bag waste!
The Wales Recycles campaign looks specifically at food waste – which is another item that is all too often thrown into the rubbish bin! A recent WRAP* kerbside black bag analysis of Rhondda Cynon Taf highlighted that black bag waste in RCT contained 39% of food waste items that could have been recycled! This is well above the “all Wales” figure of 25%!
In Wales, as a nation we are already MIGHTY recyclers and are number THREE in the world!
In Rhondda Cynon Taf we are taking MIGHTY actions to recycle and fight against climate change. In July this year the Council changed its black bag and wheeled bin collections to three-weekly in a bid to increase recycling rates and reduce carbon emissions! So far the early recycling rates for dry and food are all on the up and overall black bag waste is going down – which means that residents are taking up the challenge ‘Let’s UP Our Recycling GAME’ and ‘Let’s Hit the TARGET! If we all continue our MIGHTY efforts then RCT is back on the winning recycling track!
The Council also introduced sustainable and reusable green sacks for green waste collections in November 2021 and this has helped the Council to reduce its overall plastic usage by millions of clear bags annually. These changes to the green waste collection service and the forthcoming changes to a bookable service for the Winter Green Collections are helping to reduce the Council’s carbon footprint and bring us closer to hitting the Welsh Government recycling target of 70% by 2024/25.
A big barrier to recycling is contamination – which can see residents’ MIGHTY efforts wasted!
11,483.92 tonnes of food waste was collected from April 22- March 23.
BUT 419.25 tonnes were contaminated and had to be thrown away. That’s nearly 4% more food waste that could have been recycled!
The good news is that out of the food waste that was recycled, enough energy was collected to power around 1100 homes!
Over 56,534.28 tonnes of DRY mixed recycling was recycled from April 22 to March 23 by RCT residents.
The bad news is over 3439.40 additional tonnes were thrown away due to contamination - a wasted recycling effort.
This could all be avoided by rinsing items in leftover dishwater!
That one tin, with the leftover bean juice, could see the whole bag of recycling wasted – or even worse it could ruin a whole lorry load once collected. It’s also really important to know what, where and how to recycle your household items – luckily in RCT there is an A-Z searchable online guide available 24/7 for residents to use - www.rctcbc.gov.uk/RecyclingSearch!
Some items may not be recyclable at the kerbside but there are often other options…
Community Recycling Centres CRCs – There are SIX CRCs across the County Borough, that are open 7 days a week from 8am – 7.30pm (summer opening hours). All centres accept a large number of items, from hard plastics, to soil, wood and broken electricals. Full details can be found at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/CRCs.
Small WEEE at Participating Leisure Centres - The SEVEN main Leisure for Life, Leisure Centres across RCT now have dedicated bins in their Reception areas for you to drop your small WEEE items (anything smaller thanks a four slice toaster) and then head to your chosen leisure activity – its win, win for the environment and for your fitness. More information www.rctcbc.gov.uk/WEEE.
Re-use Shops – There are three dedicated re-use shops, called ‘The Shed’ across the County Borough, with one based in each area of Rhondda, Cynon and Taf. These shops are open for donations to ensure that your unwanted items are given a new lease of life. They are also open for you to pick up a bargain and do your bit for the environment, by making used treasures available to the masses! From toys to table and chairs, the shed has got the lot! Full details can be found at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/TheShed.
Repair shops – The Council supports a number of local pop-up repair events and is looking to develop a regular area in the new ‘The Shed’ facility in Cannon Street, Aberdare.
Supermarkets – A number of local supermarkets offer carrier bag/soft plastic (e.g. bread bags) and even crisp packet recycling schemes, along with battery recycling. Don’t forget to check in your local store next time you shop.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure, said:
“I would like to thank RCT residents for their HUGE recycling efforts, they have been fantastic. If we keep this up, we will hit the Welsh Governments target of 70% well before 2024/25 – well done RCT!
“As a Council we do our best to make recycling easy and accessible for all – with a simple one bag system for dry recyclables. Our Community Recycling Centres are situated to within a few miles of each resident and are open 7 days a week, even bank holidays.
“We should continue to be proud of our recycling efforts, but there is still more we can do. We know our residents care about climate change and want to do all they can to make Wales and Rhondda Cynon Taf a cleaner and greener place. Together we can help to get Wales to number one and protect the planet by recycling more of the right things and reducing contamination every time.”
Throughout recycling week, the Council will be sharing daily facts on its social media channels on how you can increase your recycling and UP your recycling GAME for RCT!
Follow @RCTCouncil on Twitter and Facebook.
More information can also be found by visiting www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling.
Posted on 16/10/2023