Ceredigion residents are among the best recyclers in Wales, having exceeded the recycling targets set by Welsh Government this year. Since November 2010, following lengthy trials, the weekly collections of clear recycling bags and food waste bins as well as the fortnightly black bag collections, have been a huge success.

Councillor Alun Williams, Cabinet Member for Carbon Management with Ceredigion County Council is delighted that residents in the County have been so willing to recycle household waste.

‘ Whilst it’s up to the Council to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle, we depend on local residents to take part. The people of Ceredigion have set an example to other places in their willingness to sort their waste and put it out for collection in the right way each week. This both helps the environment and reduces the amount the Council needs to pay in Landfill Tax. With the Council’s team of highly committed officers and the county’s equally committed residents we can continue to be among the leading recyclers in the country,’ commented Cllr Williams.

Officers from the Waste Management Team have been promoting and raising awareness of recycling in Ceredigion by visiting various local agricultural shows over the summer, and have received positive feedback.
For many years the Authority has promoted recycling at large county shows. This year, officers attended a number of local shows in order to contact a different section of the public. 

‘ People said they liked our system of weekly and fortnightly collections, and of course our black bags don’t attract vermin as they no longer hold food waste,’ commented Mererid Jones, Ceredigion’s Waste Minimisation Assistant.

Ceredigion County Council is striving to improve its recycling service as Huw T Morgan, Director of Highways, Properties and Works explains:

‘ It is extremely important that we promote waste minimisation for the good of our communities and indeed for the environmental wellbeing of the planet. The landfilling of domestic waste must reduce significantly in order to reduce harming our environment further; moreover, annual increases in Government landfill tax makes the burying of waste increasingly expensive at a time when public resources are reducing.

‘ It is very pleasing to see that Ceredigion residents are responding positively and taking advantage of our recycling services. It demonstrates that people really do care about their environment and the wellbeing of their communities.