Councillor A Hussain to the Cabinet Member Communities

In UK about 11 billion wet wipes are used every year - causing 93 percent of blockage in UK sewers. In Wales, Welsh waters deals with around 2,000 sewer blockage every month and the major cause of which are wipes.

Knowing that 90 percent of wipes contain more than ¾ plastic and since we are doing well with our recycling waste collection, should we not be the first Council to introduce separate collection for these wet wipes as any other single use plastic?

Councillor A Hussain to the Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member – Communities:

In UK about 11 billion wet wipes are used every year - causing 93 percent of blockage in UK sewers. In Wales, Welsh waters deals with around 2,000 sewer blockage every month and the major cause of which are wipes.

Knowing that 90 percent of wipes contain more than ¾ plastic and since we are doing well with our recycling waste collection, should we not be the first Council to introduce separate collection for these wet wipes as any other single use plastic?

Response:

Bridgend Council is already proudly amongst the top recycling authorities in Wales. Well ahead of the statutory 64% recycling target set by Welsh Government. Thanks to the public’s commitment and engagement with our leading recycling service.

On the 1st April of 2024 two important milestones will be passed in terms of our waste and recycling services. Firstly the Welsh Government statutory recycling target will rise to 70% recycling and secondly, our current contract which defines our service collection methodology with Kier will expire.

Officers are already working on the options for the service post 2024, and over the coming months and years, engagement with council members and the public will be carried out to define the next phase of our service provision.

A process that will include reviewing strategically and holistically what the future range of materials we recycle is composed of. Ensuring we achieve maximum environmental benefit in a cost effective way. Guaranteeing that BCBC remains a leader in this field of protecting the environment and surpassing statutory targets.

With respect to the specific request to recycle wet wipes, whilst it is possible to recycle them (not with our normal kerbside plastic) but with our outlet for Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHP) who can take them from us, it is not recommended at this time.

In order to recycle the wet wipes the AHP service would need to be extended to all household to collect a relatively small extra tonnage of material separately. This would be both prohibitively expensive and questionable in terms of environmental benefit when taking into account the carbon impact of sending vehicles to every household for such limited quantities of recyclable material.

To summarise and conclude, we will continue to provide a market leading recycling service, actively promote and engage with the public in regards to the current service. Whilst undertaking a wholescale review of the provision in readiness for implementation of a revised collection regime in April 2024. Mid-term contract and service changes are not recommended.

Supplementary question from Councillor A Hussain

Wipes at present are either used for land fill or are incinerated which contributes to more carbon emissions and poor air quality than vehicular  which is avoidable and let us hope and wait for our electric fleet for waste collection.

We are putting tea bags in our food waste bin as marked on our household food waste caddy, knowing that the skeleton left behind however is the non-biodegradable polypropylene (PP) and therefore not 100 per cent compostable. Should we allow this contamination which affects the quality of the compost, to continue?

Response

The Deputy Leader advised that the most important issue was trying to change the public’s behaviour, by encouraging them not to buy wherever possible, anything that wasn’t recyclable. He was aware of the tea bag issue in that some makes of these, came with a small level of plastic components in them. However, some were also completely compostable. Where the Council currently sends its compost for recycling, ie at the Kenning site, they were able to manage to take small particles of plastic out of those products that contained this however, and in turn, re-direct these for energy production.

Second supplementary question from Councillor B Sedgebeer

We need to encourage people more not to use or purchase items, including certain types of wipes and tea bags that contain plastic, as Councillor Hussain referred to in his above questions. She asked if the Cabinet could work with organisations, such as the Health Board and Early Years etc, in order to encourage the use of re-usable products such as wipes and nappies, so that any unnecessary plastic remnants in products such as these amongst others, was not contained in them from the outset when they are produced, as opposed to subsequently attempting to recycle such plastic material that may be contained within these items when they are initially produced.

Response

The Deputy Leader confirmed that he was a member of the Ministerial Programme Board that met on a quarterly basis with the Welsh Government Minister. He would raise this at the next meeting, as ideas how to better improve methods of recycling materials and to reduce the amount of waste that was fed into the main waste stream(s), were always looking to be improved.

Third supplementary question by Councillor PA Davies

The real issue was the production of items such as wet wipes in the first instance. Could the Council write to the UK Government asking Ministers to introduce legislation to stop the production of these that contain plastic in them.

Response

This suggestion was agreed to by assent.