Welsh council offers recycling support for households at risk of fixed penalty

A Welsh council is offering recycling help for households who recycle very little in order to help them avoid a fixed penalty notice.

Conwy County Borough Council has today launched their new ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ campaign, focussing on households that currently recycle very little or nothing at all.

The new approach will see a renewed effort to get the minority of households that don’t yet recycle to start now.

“The majority of residents do recycle their rubbish, but now it’s time that everyone takes part,” said Councillor Geoff Stewart, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood and the Environment.

“When people don’t recycle what they can, we all lose out on the money we could make from selling recyclable materials, such as cans, paper, card and plastic.

“It also means we have to pay more than we need to get rid of the rubbish placed in black bins, because some of this could have been recycled.

“Money which could have been spent delivering or improving services for the community, such as schools, libraries, housing, parks and social services, is instead then spent on clearing up any mess and vermin created from overflowing bins, as well paying for these unnecessary disposal costs.”

Conwy County Borough Council say the cost not recycling is significant, but also completely avoidable.

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Cllr Stewart said: “These are the reasons we’re focussing on those few households that – for whatever reason – have ignored the need to recycle so far.

“We’ve made recycling easy. There are weekly collections from right outside the door for many items, including paper, card, cans, bottles, plastic pots tubs and trays, glass jars, aerosols, foil and food. It really doesn’t take much time or effort to sort your items into the correct bags, bins and boxes.

“For most people in Conwy it’s already part of their routine”.

Residents can ask for a member of the Council’s team to visit them in their home, to show them how to sort and recycle their rubbish.

The Council have said the service is especially important to support the most vulnerable.

From today, if any households ignore the support offered and continue to recycle very little or nothing at all, the Council will issue fixed penalty notices.

This means the resident must pay a fixed penalty of £100 or appear in court.

Cllr Geoff Stewart said: “No-one wishes to take enforcement action, but it’s unfair on the whole community if a few households continue not to recycle, if everyone else is. Don’t worry though, as this will only affect those households who don’t make the effort to recycle much or at all.

“Our objective is that everyone should recycle their waste responsibly. Those that don’t already should join their neighbours in doing this for their community. Remember to ‘Keep up with the Joneses’!”

The Council is urging those that don’t recycle not to wait for a warning letter, but to get started straight away.