Family of woman with dementia share frustration as recycling is left to pile up

Ted Peskett Local Democracy Reporter

A woman whose mother has dementia is furious after the council did not pick up her sorted recycling for weeks, leaving plastic, glass and other waste to pile up.

Ann Dello, from Caerau, Cardiff said her mother was supposed to benefit from Cardiff Council’s assisted lift service when it came to the collection of her recycling.

This is when a location is agreed in an area of a property for the council to come and collect the resident’s waste and return the sacks and containers afterwards.

Missed collection

Ann reported a missed collection at her mother’s when Heol Trelai changed to the new sorted recycling system.

This was reported to the council, but the following two weeks were the same – Ann’s mother’s street had its recycling collected, but hers was not.

Cardiff Council has now collected the recycling and said it is working to ensure any issues with the transfer to the new recycling system in Caerau are resolved.

However, Ann said: “I know it is deeply frustrating for me by the lack of response and the constant need to report it without a tangible solution.

“It just makes you feel unheard and neglected by the local authorities and it is kind of distressing when it is going on.”

The separated recycling scheme was piloted across 10,000 households in wards across Cardiff in 2022 and 2023 and it was later rolled out to 37,000 properties from February, 2024.

It involves residents separating their recyclables three ways. There is a blue caddy for glass, a blue sack for paper and cardboard, and a red sack for metals, foil, plastics, and tetra packs.

Success

Cardiff Council said the co-mingled method of recycling would often cause contamination to the recyclable material by some people putting items in their green bags which shouldn’t be there.

The separated system has shown success in improving the quality of recyclable material, but there have been teething issues in areas where it has been introduced too.

As recycling built up on her mother’s driveway, Ann was told she could access more recycling sacks if she needed to.

Ann said: “I shouldn’t have to get more sacks if they’d done their job and collected it when they should do. It means going out of my way, leaving my mother, who I care for full time… to go to the hub and get more sacks for her.

“I shouldn’t need to be doing that.”

On top of this, Ann said Church Road in Caerau where she lives had also had issues recently when waste collections had not taken place on the day the council said it would.

Response

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “The recycling collections in Caerau take place today (August 6th), so the recycling from [Ann’s mother’s property] Heol Trelai will be collected by the end of today.

“The council has recently rolled out segregated recycling collections in Caerau and there have been a small number of missed collections whilst rounds are bedding in.

“We understand the inconvenience this may have caused to our residents and are working diligently to ensure any issues are resolved as quickly as possible.”