[Flintshire] council is poised to introduce monthly black bin collections in a bid to improve its recycling rates.
Flintshire Council is currently facing the threat of fines of more than £1m after missing the Welsh Government target of recycling 64 per cent of the rubbish it collects for the last four financial years.
With the goal set to increase to 70 per cent in 2024/25, the local authority is now planning to only pick up general waste from residents once every four weeks.
Politicians have previously resisted switching from the present fortnightly arrangement due to concerns over how it will impact residents.
However, senior officials have warned change is necessary to avoid further financial penalties.
Everything that goes into my black bins is non-recyclable. That’s why it goes into black bins.
I don’t want to buy things that are non-recyclable but I can’t buy shampoo containers that aren’t plastic. I can’t buy meat in foil trays. I can’t buy toothpaste in metal tubes.
These are things I have no choice over, and moving to monthly black bins won’t fix that. Can’t the government set targets for the companies selling these things, it feels like trying to get the tail to wag the dog here.
There is absolutely a need for manufacturers to do better in selling their products in recyclable containers, but I think maybe this move is to target those people who refuse to recycle any of their waste.
Perhaps if the black bins of those people are full after two weeks, and they know it won’t be emptied for another two, they’ll consider sorting out the recyclables.
Once a month will impact those that do recycle everything they can. That’s quite a wait between collections.
Some, for sure. I recycle everything I can and only need to put the black bin out roughly once every two months, so it wouldn’t make a difference to me.
I could probably be able to do once every 3 weeks, but that’s because there are four of us here.
I may be able to do every 6 weeks once the teenagers move out.
Just as bad, what does the recycling program look like?
Every time I’ve looked into a municipality recycling program, it does little to nothing.