RHONDDA CYNON TAF looks on course to exceed the Welsh Government’s 70% recycling target this year.
A report for the council’s climate change, frontline services and prosperity committee on Wednesday, March 26, shows that RCT’s recycling performance during the whole of 2023/24 was 67.23% with performance improving to 70.61% for April to December of 2024/25.
The report said the council continued to exceed the current Welsh Government recycling target of 64%, as it worked towards the next target of 70% by April, 2025.
After a slight drop in recycling tonnages from 2021/22 to 2022/23, the council’s recycling performance in 2023/24 improved following the move to three weekly collection frequency for refuse, the committee report said.
The report mentioned a number of reasons for the previous fall in recycling rates including fewer awareness raising campaigns such as door knocking to raise awareness of recycling services available to residents as the service continued to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing cost of living crisis which impacted some specific materials (wood and rubble) that contribute to higher recycling levels and less food waste being presented for collection.
The council made several changes to waste services in 2024/2025 following the introduction of three weekly household refuse collections in 2023/2024 with the aim of meeting the 70% recycling target.
These included the standardisation of collections of refuse from bags rather than wheelie bins, the move to three weekly collections for trade refuse, a revised more efficient free online booking system for the collection of green waste during the winter months, facilitating the Welsh Government Workplace Recycling Regulations 2024, continuing to employ extra waste awareness officers and a new collection method on the Pant Y Cerdin estate, Cwmbach in collaboration with Trivallis.
The introduction of standardised refuse collections from bags rather than bins across RCT, refuse tonnages have reduced by 34%, food waste tonnages have increased by 26%, with absorbent hygiene products recycling up by 12% and dry mixed recycling trending up by 8%, the report said.
This is an average weekly recycling performance increase of 11% since the beginning of the third quarter of 2024/25.
The report said that Rhondda Cynon Taf continued to collect more weekly dry mixed recycling than any other council with an unprecedented 80% weekly recycling rate over Christmas and new year.
In 2024, the service delivered 17,371 food bins, along with 7,651 green garden waste sacks, which were increases of 11% and 57% respectively from 2023.
