Residents complain of ‘stinking’ food waste containers ‘full of maggots’ after rollout of new recycling scheme

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Residents say their “stinking” food recycling bins are writhing with maggots and flies due to their council’s botched rollout of its new recycling scheme.

Denbighshire introduced its new Trolibocs system last month but was forced to apologise after collections went weeks overdue for some.

The council is supposed to collect recycling on a weekly basis whilst rubbish collections are now made every four weeks as opposed to the old two-week system.

The council expects residents to separate items such as paper, plastic, metal, food cartons, and glass themselves to help cut costs. A weighted hessian bag is used for cardboard.

But a number of residents across the county have slammed the service as bins and recycling containers have remained unemptied.

The council has argued that most collections have taken place as planned.

Missing collections

Stuart Davies, of Fron Bach in Llangollen, a former deputy leader at Denbighshire County Council, claimed his recycling and food waste containers hadn’t been emptied for two weeks whilst some neighbours had waited three.

“They are still missing collections out,” he said.

“I’ve been emailing the chief exec, the head of service, the corporate director, and they are just ignoring us. The food waste bin is full of maggots, and it is just not on.

“There are flies everywhere. It is stinking. The lanes are half blocked because the neighbours have left their Trolibocs out. People can’t deliver parcels.

Fellow Llangollen resident Jane Palombella also lives at Fron Bach and claimed the road was too narrow for refuse collectors to work.

“As we thought, the new collections don’t work,” she said.

“The workers have not got room to put the sides of the truck down, so they can’t load the recycling.

“They are now refusing to come up here. We have had no recycling collection for two weeks, our neighbours three weeks.

“Theirs included food waste too. We seem to be at an impasse with the council now.”

Difficulties

A spokesperson for Denbighshire County Council said: “The majority of recycling and residual waste collections have been completed as planned under the new waste and recycling service.

“We however accept that a number of residents didn’t receive the service planned and this has caused difficulties for them.

“The council is continuing to closely monitor the roll out of the new service and is doing everything we can to make sure that all residential waste collections are made as planned.

“We would also again like to thank all residents for their efforts to ensure that their recycling is sorted correctly and placed in the appropriate containers.

“These efforts are continuing to greatly improve the quality of the recycling materials collected and this is really appreciated.”