Old Colwyn (East) Residents’ Association
Minute of a question and answer session at the meeting on
Wednesday 11th October 2006 on the subject of Recycling in Colwyn
The Speakers
Councillor Mike Priestley, Member of the Cabinet for the Environment
Mr Tony Sykes the Waste Strategy Manager of Conwy County Borough
The Chair introduced the two speakers to give an update on recycling and then take a question and answer session.
Mr Sykes opened by saying that he was pleased to be present and that the Authority needs to know 1st hand of any problems at such an early stage.
He noted that 12 months ago when he first spoke to our association, a number of people had reservations.
Since then, he continued the Authority has been operating an alternate week collection scheme, with the box and bag one week and the wheelie bin the next, in an area of 11,500 properties. The consultation with those people was conducted in February resulting in an 89% satisfaction rate. He acknowledged that there would be hiccups in the first couple of weeks but reckoned that the organisation now in Old Colwyn is about 95% right.
He outlined that by now, some of the members would have had a residual waste collection and others the box and the bag. Those living in houses of multiple occupancy would be using the bigger bins supplied.
He outlined that what he needed to do was to take a measure of what people think.
A Resident asked why there are no lids for the boxes and why the collection day has moved back to a Monday. This will possibly cause problems at Bank Holidays she thought.
Answer ~ Some lids had been brought to the meeting and were at the back of the room for those who needed them. The reason that the lids were not sent out with the boxes was because of the feedback from the people involved in the first area who mainly did not care for the lids as they did not fit well and there had been issues including the fact that some needed a brick on top to stop them blowing off in the wind. There were other issues which had been learned from the initial rollout and this had led to a decision not to issue them.
This has led to a lot of complaints. The matter is being put right and from now on the boxes will all be issued with lids.
With respect to the day changes, the whole area of recycling and kerbside residual waste has caused 30% more work than before with the result that all collections have had to be completely re-planned and timed to get more pickups.
In reply to a further question by the resident, Mr Sykes stated that although there has been a day change to Monday in her case, it will not be to her detriment. For instance at Christmas, the Monday collection will be done on the Saturday before Christmas. It has been examined very carefully and the decision is that it is impossible to operate a two week kerb-side collection without continuing during the Christmas and holiday time.
A Resident asked about the increase in packaging at Christmas time.
Answer ~ The Council operates a closed lid policy and no bags with residual waste in the wheelie bins. This will be relaxed to at Christmas to include side refuse.
A Resident stated that in some areas of the country, Councils operating recycling actually pick up residual waste each week.
Answer ~ Alternate weekly collections are so important to recycling policy and it is not to save money. It gives the opportunity to increase efficiency. The top four local authorities are all using the fortnightly collection method. It gives an incentive to the householder to do the recycling of waste. This will enable Conwy to reach its European Waste Reduction Targets.
A resident mentioned the issue of large numbers of nappies in waste bins and stated that there was no way that a large family with a baby can last two weeks, with the nappies going in to the wheelie bin.
Answer ~ Let us look at the worse case scenario with a man, his wife and three children one of whom is in nappies. The nappies take up a large volume of space in the bin. A decision has been taken that such a family will be allowed another wheelie bin. People should ring the hotline 575337.
Councillor Priestley then stated that the philosophy that is being adopted is “HELP, HELP, HELP”. There will be no “stick”, whatever the Council can do to help the public assist the Council to help the environment. If that policy means an assisted collection, that will happen. If it means someone having an extra bin then that will be provided. If necessary the Council will have someone visit a resident who requests a visit to explain the process.
The are twelve Recycling Performance Officers in Conwy. Their job is to sort out logistical problems such as houses of multiple occupation.
A resident said that she is unsure, there is no plastic allowed in bins so she thought that plate scrapings are intended to go in the bin direct. Over a fortnight that would make a terrible mess. There is no cardboard in the bins, that has to go to Mochdre or Abergele which in her case would mean a bus ride.
She asked why can’t we have a wheeled bin into which we can put cardboard, envelopes and paper? She further said that she has nine grandchildren near her home and they use lots of card and she has nowhere to put it, the big milk tins also go in the bin.
Mr Sykes then explained that plastic milk bottles are an important recycling issue. It is virtually impossible for a family to survive the fortnightly alternate collection scheme without recycling plastic. Just 14 plastic milk bottles would virtually fill the bin. Plastic recycling banks have been enabled with the rollout. The plastic has to be taken to the bank however.
In the phase one rollout consultation, 75% of people said they wanted card recycling kerbside and 79% said they wanted plastic kerbside collections. The Council is looking into how the issue can be facilitated in the future.
A resident said that she thought that the collectors would lift the lid and say that they could not take certain things inside.
Mr Sykes replied that Conwy is operating a flat lid ~ no side refuse policy. They will not look in the bin. The idea is to encourage people to engage with recycling.
A resident asked about garden rubbish collection.
Mr Sykes and Mr Priestley explained that garden rubbish is collected separately, that is part of the scheme. There had been some initial problems in Old Colwyn but Crest have now signed up to an agreement that they will collect garden waste on the same day as the boxes and paper. Garden Waste should be put out with the box and bag. It will be collected on the same day but not at the same time.
There is also the issue of composters. If the householder has a garden, garden waste can be put in a composter. The Council is selling 400 a month.
A resident said that she does not have a garden but she does have tubs with the issue of old compost being a problem for her to get rid of.
The answer in this case was that the old compost would have to be put out as garden waste.
Mr Priestley reiterated that a Recycling Officer can visit any householder to put that persons mind at rest if they have a problem, all it takes is a phone call; they are very good at their job.
Mark Chatham spoke then of the bottle bank “igloos” which often get full and then people dump their bags of bottles alongside the bank.
Answer ~ With kerbside collection the bottle banks get used more. This issue raised a gale of laughter when it was suggested that people do not want their neighbours to see how many wine bottles there are in the box.
Mr Sykes said that there are 58 bank sites in Conwy and every one gets visited every single day by a man in a truck with a brush whose job it is to clean the site and report back to the office any problems with the bank.
Some of the banks can only be emptied in a Monday and Thursday as they are being managed by an operator which sends its own transport for the pickup.
Conwy has now bought 60 banks which it has distributed to ensure capacity. Together with the bulking station at Abergele, the Department is tuning up at this time to be able to have more control and use its own staff to manage the skips by placing a new one and taking away the full one.
Berthes Road site showed some surprises initially and some improvements should be seen.
As for the three banks which had recently been destroyed by arson on Berthes Road, the Council will seek to replace them by metal banks.
The issue of packaging was the discussed and Mr Priestley told of a recent visit that he had made to Cardiff recently with this issue. The Women’s Institute has been lobbying about packaging. On the morning of the conference that he was attending, Sainsburys had just announced that they were intending to reduce packaging on 500 items of stock, It will be pressure from us all that makes this happen. He said that he is aware that some people buying a portable television for example will refuse to take the packaging and just take the television; this type of pressure will have an effect.
The issue of envelopes was then discussed. It was explained that envelopes are made with glue and some have a plastic window and this can have a detrimental effect in the hydro-mulcher at the paper mill. People are encouraged to use a label and reuse their envelopes. Waste envelopes must go in the wheelie bin however. Shredded paper is acceptable in the bags.
A resident brought up the issue of recycled plastic, she said that she takes plastic to the bank and said that that it is very tidy but asked what happens to the plastic.
Answer ~ It goes onto the open market and could be exported. Nobody in Conwy knows where it will end up. It goes initially to the north west of England and is bought by plastic reprocessors. 90% of plastics reprocessors in the UK are in the North West so it could be dealt with in the UK. Some goes to China.
The issue of Cardboard was discussed;. It is taken to Mochdre, the council gets top money for that and it goes to make new cardboard and is processed in the UK.
Mr Priestley said that the Mochdre site is very busy but the council is looking to expand and move the boundaries out to make it safer. There is a great staff there and they do a good job but the shape of the site like a horseshoe is difficult to work with, with two gates. There will be a one way system from Glan y Wern Road up through the site eventually.
A resident asked if because of the fact that there is a problem with the looseness of the recycling box lids, future models will be modified.
Mr Priestley replied that once this phase is bedded in which will probably take about twelve weeks, there will be a feedback cycle via the recycling officers.
Mr Sykes added that the lids in the first rollout cycle had deteriorated. They were supposed to snap on.
Mr Priestley continued that maybe in the future, they would examine the issue of a small wheelie bin; the service will be continuously looked at to improve the service to the householder. The tools to do the job at present, is what we have got but as we move on we may progress.
It was recognised that there are different requirements for receptacles depending on family circumstances and the residents were assured that if you have the need for extra boxes they will be provided at no charge.
A resident asked for the definition of hard plastic, not allowed in the recycling banks.
Answer ~ No PVC and an example of hard plastic is a CD case. Milk containers are soft plastic and so are the coloured tops, clear see through plastic bags are ok, any of the seven different types of plastic, except plastic that is hard and brittle which is not allowed in the banks and should go in the residual waste bins.
The Chair expressed concern at a newspaper report about rats and super-rats with the longer wait between collections.
Mr Priestley replied side refuse is probably to blame for that. During the trial period of over a year in Kinmel Bay area, has not shown any rat infestation, rural areas only get a fortnightly collection, there has been no problem. The problem has been with side refuse; foxes, dogs, cats, seagulls in the morning, that has been the biggest problem. There has been media frenzy over it nationally. We are in week one, we have to do it and my job as Cabinet member is to support you to do your bit and if you struggle we will help. I have tried to put a positive message in the papers but the negative message is always more likely to succeed.
A Resident asked about fly tipping and whether it had increased.
Answer ~ side refuse does not get fly-tipped; there has been increased activity at the civic amenity sites with black bin waste
A resident asked about cleaning of bottles and cans.
Answer ~ all bottles and cans should be just washed out, labels do not need to be taken off. If bottles and cans are not washed they go mouldy.
Councillor Priestley and Mr. Sykes were thanked by the Chair for giving their time to give their interesting talk to the meeting.
