CONCERNS have been raised that recycling separated by Denbighshire residents in some parts of the county is being co-mingled back again by those collecting the waste.

Darren Millar, MS for Clwyd West, said in the Senedd this week that this is counterproductive to Welsh Government’s own recycling targets.

 On June 3, Denbighshire County Council introduced changes to recycling and waste collections, including new containers and weekly collections for recyclable materials, and the scrapping of the blue wheelie bin.

Since then, some of the county’s residents have been required to separate their “dry” recycling using a new three-tier “Trolibocs”.

But the council has so far issued multiple apologies for residents across the county not having their bins collected on time.

Mr Millar 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, 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.

 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.”

Mr Millar added: “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 Welsh Government fully supports Denbighshire County Council to help them rectify the failings as soon as possible.”  

In response to Mr Millar’s comments, a Denbighshire County Council spokesperson said the local authority is finalising a paper on, and a revised business case for, the new waste service.

Both will be presented to the council’s cabinet on October 1.

A spokesperson for Denbighshire County Council said: “We continue to closely monitor the rollout of the new waste and recycling collection service for residential properties in Denbighshire.

“Measures we have implemented have seen the difficulties ease as the new service becomes more embedded across the county.

“That paper will confirm the projected cost of the waste service in 2024-25, which includes any additional costs incurred to resolve issues that we’ve experienced with the new recycling service. 

“It will also detail the projected cost of the waste service moving forward.

“In regard to co-mingled collections, these are only being used as a last resort when standard collections cannot be carried out. This is a practice that we will be phasing out.

“When this type of collection is necessary, recycling is kept separate from the food wherever possible, enabling the waste to still be recycled after the round is complete.”