City council facing £4m fine if recycling target isn’t met

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

A city council official insisted Cardiff is making progress towards its recycling target despite it still lagging behind and facing a potential multi-million-pound penalty.

The Welsh Government has set councils across the country with a statutory minimum recycling target of 70%.

Only a handful of councils have achieved this so far and those who don’t reach it over the coming years could face a huge financial penalty.

In Cardiff it could be worth £4m if performance doesn’t meet the required target in the next three years.

Cardiff Council’s director of economic development, Neil Hanratty, told members of the council’s governance and audit committee on Tuesday, March 25, that the local authority made good progress over the past 12 months in terms of its recycling performance.

Plan

A report presented to committee members stated that Cardiff Council’s recycling performance went up from 58.2% to 61.6% between 2021-22 and 2022-23 but went down slightly to 60.1% in 2023-24.

Mr Hanratty said: “[We are a] little bit behind where we should be at the moment but we do have a plan to get us there.”

The council officer went on to add that there are a number of key challenges that the council faces in reaching its target, like having a large student population, 30% of its housing stock being flats and houses of multiple occupation, and strikes that affected waste collection last year.

Audit Wales presented Cardiff Council with a number of recommendations in 2022 on improving recycling.

It recently published a report stating that the local authority is making reasonable progress in meeting these.

However it added that work remains to address them fully.

Students

A member of the governance and audit committee, Dr Janet Wademan, asked about the work Cardiff Council is doing to improve recycling among students and whether there was sufficient engagement with universities.

Cardiff Council’s assistant director of street scene, Matthew Wakelam, said the council has been working directly with universities and communicating with management and leadership teams on what is expected in terms of recycling.

Mr Wakelam added that steps have been taken to put more responsibility on landlords of houses of multiple occupation to make sure recycling is done correctly.

There have been some significant changes to waste disposal in Cardiff over the last year with Cardiff Council currently completing its rollout of the new sack-sort recycling method.

The new recycling method, which involves residents sorting their recyclables into different sacks and containers instead of mixing it into one bag, has been criticised by some but the council argues it is improving the quality of recyclable materials they collect.

Mr Wakelam pointed out that some of the areas in Wales achieving, or close to achieving, a recycling rate of 70% are among those that have a similar recycling method already bedded in.

The final phase of the sack-sort rollout saw the scheme expanded to 36,400 homes in Butetown, Canton, Creigiau, Cyncoed, Fairwater, Llanishen, Llanrumney, Old St Mellons, and Riverside.