This recycling week (22rd September – 28th September) we’re asking residents to join the national campaign ‘Rescue Me, Recycle’ 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 – including our inedible food waste. 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! It looks to ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Recycle’ reminding people that items like egg shells and tea bags can be recycled and put into the caddy instead of black bag waste.
In Wales it is estimated that 25% of the average rubbish bag or bin is made up of food and most of this could have been eaten. In 2022 a WRAP black bag analysis in Rhondda Cynon Taf found that 39% of all black bag waste was made up of food waste – the good news is, that the actions that we have taken together over the last three years have helped to reduce this significantly!
Thanks to the standardisation of waste collection in September 2024 there has been a 17% increase in food waste recycled and a 36% decrease in black bag waste collected! We are also consistently recycling well over 70% of our waste and are proud to say that we smashed the 70% Welsh Government target for 2024/25.
In Wales, as a nation we are already MIGHTY recyclers and are number TWO in the world!
A big barrier to recycling is contamination – which can see residents’ MIGHTY efforts wasted!
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!
It's also key to make sure that your limited black bag collections (3 black bags every 3 weeks), doesn’t contain any of the rescuable food waste items – that mean recycling any inedible food waste and using up anything that you can!
Recycle for Wales has come up with some exciting new recipes to help you!
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 8.30am – 6.30pm (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 Environmental Services, said: “I would like to thank RCT residents for their HUGE recycling efforts, they have been fantastic. If we keep this up, we will continue to smash any of the future Welsh Governments! 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.”
For more information follow us @RCTCouncil on Instagram and Facebook or visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling.
Posted on 24/09/2025