Council slammed after it admits mixing dry recycling with food

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A council has been slammed after an online video emerged showing recycling operatives mixing food waste with separated “dry recycling”.

Denbighshire County Council launched a new Trolibocs refuse system in June – but the rollout has been beset with problems.

The new system requires residents to separate and wash recycling items before they are collected.

But after weeks of missed collections, numerous videos have emerged online showing recycling operatives mixing or “co-mingling” separated waste at collection – with one video even showing food being dumped on top of washed recycling, which the council said was an error.

Last week Plaid Cymru councillors backed Labour by voting against the cabinet being removed, ensuring the coalition between the two parties remained, after the Independent Party tabled a motion to remove the leader and cabinet from power.

Green Party members also voted against removing Labour leader Cllr Jason McLellan and his cabinet members, helping preserve both Labour and Plaid seats at the helm.

Over budget

At the meeting, councillors heard how the botched recycling system was running £50-60K over budget a week whilst recycling workers were also accused of throwing batteries in residents’ hedges.

Independent leader Cllr Huw Hilditch-Roberts said the video showing dry “co-mingled” collections being mixed with food proved there was still a problem.

“As I highlighted last week, the recycling does appear to be out of control,” he said.

“The Independent Group challenged the leadership of the council on this. I am aware that there is a cabinet meeting to be held on October 1 to discuss new routes, which obviously I will look forward to understanding what exactly is being done to rectify this situation which is clearly out of hand.

“If food is going into dry recycling collections, that is a concern.

“The concern is that if food is being mixed, the recycling programme is not working, and that is a concern because food needs to be collected separately from the dry recycling.

“We are asking residents to wash bottles and tins before putting them in recycling, yet the video shows mixing food with dry recycling.

“From what I’ve seen from a distance, it (the cage) is open air.”

‘Chaos’

He added: “The system is currently not working. I’ve said it on many occasions, but it is falling on deaf ears, and it is the knock-on effect recycling has on green waste, garden waste, and general waste, as well as commercial waste.

“It is causing chaos on other waste services.”

A Denbighshire County Council spokesman commented: “We are aware of the issue shown in the video, and this has been promptly addressed to make sure that operatives are aware of the correct way of using this particular vehicle for collections.

“To clarify, co-mingled collections are kept separately from any food or residual waste and the material is sent for processing as recycling.

“There are some days where a small number of properties, especially those who have suffered from repeated missed collection, are still receiving a co-mingled collection.

“This is done using a cage vehicle shown in the clip and tipped off at another DCC waste transfer station where the co-mingled waste is kept separate to the food wherever possible, and then the comingled recycling is sent to a processor for separation and recycling, as would have happened under the previous collection model.

“There is a desire to stop all co-mingled collections, but when there is no other option to get the waste off the street, we occasionally do still have to collect co-mingled recycling.”

‘One-off occurrence’

Following a series of further questions sent to Denbighshire County Council, a spokesman commented: “Food waste was mistakenly added to dry recycling.

“This is contrary to operating practices and was a one-off occurrence and not how we are operating.

“It was a training and miscommunication issue. Re-education has been the approach we have taken.

“The vehicle has a split cage system that allows the food waste to be collected separately from the dry recycling and processed on return to the depot.

“It (co-mingling) is a short-term approach whilst we have a short-term vehicle availability issue.

“The caged vehicle is a resilience option where smaller vehicles are needed for restricted access and the specialist vehicles we usually operate are off road for a short time.”

He added: “It is not the norm but allows us to continue to collect and process dry recycling at Shotton.”