Clwyd West MS and Shadow Minister for North Wales, Darren Millar, has called for a Statement from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for climate change, on Denbighshire County Council’s “very poorly handled roll-out” of the new recycling system.
Speaking in the Senedd this week, Darren raised concerns that recycling separated by residents in some parts of the county is being co-mingled back again by those collecting the waste.
He stressed that this counterproductive to the Welsh Government’s own recycling targets and asked what action the Minister is taking to support the council to help ensure failings in the system are addressed.
He said;
“We’ve all celebrated the wonderful achievement that Wales has had in terms of recycling rates, but there are concerns in Denbighshire regarding the very poorly handled roll-out of the new recycling system that requires people to separate their waste at the kerbside.
“It is a matter of great confusion to my constituents that they are required to separate the waste only for some of it to then be co-mingled back again into the back of the lorries that trundle through their communities.
“Clearly, the Welsh Government has the ultimate responsibility for making sure that local authorities do a good job, and they’ve invested heavily in this new scheme in Denbighshire. So, can we have a written statement from the Cabinet Secretary on what involvement the Welsh Government is having with Denbighshire in order to support them to get this system right once and for all so that people aren’t putting up with these painful experiences of seeing their waste mixed up after they’ve gone to the efforts of sorting it out?”
Responding, the Welsh Government’s Trefnydd (Business Manager) said:
“The Deputy First Minister is here and has acknowledged that there is still an ongoing issue with implementation in terms of the delivery of the new recycling arrangements by Denbighshire County Council.
“I think I have been reassured that recent reports of food waste being mixed with other recycling, for example, which had been raised, was a one-off incident.”
Speaking after the meeting, Darren said:
“This scheme was introduced at the beginning of June and whilst everyone expects teething problems with a change of this scale, I don’t think anyone anticipated that we would still be experiencing the failings that we are more than three months on.
“The roll-out has been a shambles and is costing taxpayers dearly, with additional costs currently in the region of £50,000 to £60,000 each week.
“There really are no excuses for the level of incompetence we are still seeing and is vital that the Welsh Government fully supports Denbighshire County Council to help them rectify the failings as soon as possible.”
