Local Recycling Crews have pulled off a miracle, after they were able to recover a resident’s handbag that contained £500 from a recycling bag in Bryn Pica Recycling Centre!
Mrs Tracy Williams, from Treorchy was sorting through all the Christmas packaging and wrapping paper and had managed to collect about 10 CLEAR bags to put out for the crews.
Many residents will agree that they have all had near misses – when the keys, vital toy part or instructions have accidentally ended up in with the Christmas wrapping and then had to be quickly recovered.
BUT Mrs Williams had sorted all the recycling items and placed them out for collection the night before and headed to bed. The next morning when she was about to go shopping, she realised she couldn’t find her handbag and had last seen it on the kitchen worktop – when she was sorting out the recycling.
"My knees went weak," said Mrs. Williams. "I realised I’d set the handbag down on the worktop and that’s where me and my husband were going through all the recycling! By the time I ran outside, the street was empty. To make it even worse the bag contained my mother’s money, together with mine – totalling £500!
“I rarely have cash on me, but it was from all the Christmas presents. To say my heart stopped is an understatement! I called the highways team, I think it was, and they were really helpful but did advise me it was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack – made worse with all the extra Christmas Recycling!”
This Christmas Rhondda Cynon Taf Residents have once again outdone themselves and are recycling more than ever before! With residents helping us reach over 75% recycling rate for the three-week Christmas period – handbag excluded! So, you can only imagine the mountain of recycling the crews needed to go through to find the handbag! That week the Council collected over 800 tonnes of recycling, that’s about 28 recycling vehicles full of recycling!
As soon as the Head of Waste Services was contacted, they were able to alert the crews and locate the vehicle and find out where the recycling would have been tipped. The recycling crew from the Dinas Depot then jumped into action, knowing that there was a lot at stake, especially at this time of the year! They headed to Bryn Pica and the teams searched through the mountain of Christmas recycling in their bid to find a handbag!
After 3 hours of searching, the team at Bryn Pica proudly shouted that the bag had been found and that all the contents were still there - A real Christmas miracle!
Mrs Williams came to collect the handbag with her daughter and was incredibly grateful to the crews – who really had gone above and beyond at one of their busiest times of the year!
Mrs Williams said: “I’d like to thank all the crew for finding my handbag, it means so much to me and the whole family. I know it wasn’t easy for them and I’m so grateful that they did this for me. The crews are always so helpful, but this next level service – it wasn’t a Gucci bag, but this was a Gucci recovery service! Thank you so much!”
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council's Cabinet Member for Environmental Services said:
“Well, what can I say – Not only have we once again had one of the greenest Christmases on record, but our crews are now performing miracles, what an amazing way to start the New Year and take us into 2026!
“Thank you as always to the Streetcare team and crews, I know this is an incredibly busy time for them and their hard work is appreciated by us all.
“On behalf of the Council and Cabinet Members I would like to offer a heartfelt Thank You to our community. THANK YOU to the residents of Rhondda Cynon Taf for your overwhelming support and your amazing recycling efforts.
“I’m sure that, together we can keep up this great effort and ensure that we keep hitting and smashing any target set by the Welsh Government!”
The Council’s crews have worked hard over the festive period to collect all the extra recycling, with over 228,000 collections taking place over the busy Christmas fortnight, including 152,000 black bag collections. Thousands of real Christmas trees have been successfully collected, recycled and some have even been turned into wood chip to be used in local parks across RCT.
Recycling in Rhondda Cynon Taf is now SO EASY! Our weekly and unlimited recycling services means less waste and smells in your black bags, making recycling an EASY part of everyday life.
Recycling bags can be collected from hundreds of locations across the County Borough, residents can find their nearest at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/Bags
You can sign up to food waste, green waste and nappy recycling online at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/RecyclingSignUp.
In addition to this, ALL Community Recycling Centres are open 7 days a week from 8.30am - 4.30pm (November to March) and 8.30am - 6.30pm (March-October), find your nearest at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/CRCs.
For more information on recycling follow us on Facebook and Instagram or visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling.
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Posted on 22/01/2026