Update on county's new waste and recycling service

Denbighshire County Council’s cabinet was yesterday given an update on the waste and recycling service arrangements due to be introduced next year.

This included an updated business case reflecting changes in circumstances since the project was first approved.

The service will see a new weekly household recycling collection including paper, glass, cans, plastic and food waste and a new fortnightly collection for clothes and small electrical items.

The collection of non-recyclable waste will change from fortnightly to every four weeks and instead of the current 140 litre black bins, the council will provide new, larger 240 litre black bins instead, where needed.

The roll out is scheduled to commence in the autumn of 2023, after the completion of a new centralised waste depot on the Colomendy Industrial Estate in Denbigh, with enabling works at the site already completed. 

Due to the significant increase in inflation affecting the cost of goods and materials in the last 12 months, a bid was submitted to Welsh Government for extra funding of £1.588m for the project.

The government approved this additional funding last month.

An updated version of the business case reflecting the latest cost, budget and revenue position was presented at the meeting.

Graham Boase, Chief Executive of Denbighshire County Council, said: “This project contributes to the council’s environmental ambitions as we will be reducing carbon emissions, recycling more waste and producing higher quality recycling suitable for use in the UK manufacturing industry.

“Once up and running this new model will also cost significantly less per year than it would have done if we maintain the existing collection model.

“In this way the project has been a classic invest to save project, resulting in considerable cost avoidance over the coming years.

“There have been significant increases in prices affecting goods and materials required to implement this new model and the extra funding will help ease these pressures.

“We fully recognise this is a significant change in the way we collect and recycle household waste. The council will be engaging fully with residents, schools and other key members of the community as we move towards the autumn 2023 launch."

He added: “The new service will see increased recycling performance to meet the Welsh Government’s 70% target by 2025, and help put the council in a good position to meet any policy and legislation changes, with an expectancy the target could rise to 80% in future.

“I’m proud of the very high percentage of household waste we recycle here in Denbighshire, which reflects that this is very important issue for our residents.

“I would like to acknowledge the contribution our residents make to our ability to recycle so much of our household waste.

“As part of the new service, alternative solutions will be in place for those households who find managing their waste more challenging.

“The new service will also offer the council the option to explore a more significant switch to ultra-low emission and electric powered vehicles for waste collection, thereby further reducing our carbon footprint."