Council named best performing local authority in Wales for recycling

Lewis Smith, local democracy reporter

A local authority has been named as the best-performing in Wales when it comes to recycling.

Figures released by the Welsh Government in October showed that Bridgend county borough had a recycling rate of 73% in the 2023-24 financial year, increasing its performance by 2% since last year and by 17% over the last decade.

Waste

A council spokesman said they had recycled a total of 39, 000 tonnes of waste during the last 12 months including nearly 5,000 tonnes of glass, 11,000 tonnes of organic waste, and 6,000 tonnes of paper, with more than 9,000 tonnes of waste processed at community recycling centres.

The positive report comes as council bosses are currently in discussions over the future of waste and recycling services in Bridgend county with the potential for the council to take the services in-house after 2026.

It also follows an announcement that the authority will spend more than £1mn on the replacement and refurbishment of a number of waste vehicles in the area in the coming months.

Achievement

Councillor Paul Davies of Caerau said: “To be named as the top local authority in Wales for recycling is a tremendous achievement and reflects our ongoing commitment to improving the recycling process in the county borough.”

The Wales-wide report said in its current waste strategy, the Welsh Government set statutory targets of recycling a minimum of 64% of waste by 2019-20 and 70% of waste by 2024-25.

Across Wales 18 of the 22 local authorities were said to have hit or exceeded their targets with 15 of the 22 local authorities also reporting an increase in their recycling rate compared to 2022-23. The four that did not meet the target were Cardiff, Caerphilly, Flintshire, and Wrexham.