Wrexham Council calls for greater powers to enforce against people who don’t recycle

Wrexham Council has asked to be given greater powers to enforce against people who choose not to recycle.

The Welsh Government is consulting on ways to eliminate waste and address climate change by re-using materials.
The aim is to ensure no rubbish is sent to landfill or incinerators by 2050.

Wrexham Council has now set out its response to the exercise in which it said householders play a crucial part in achieving recycling targets.

As a result, officials want to be able to take tougher enforcement action to ensure that residents comply.

In their reply, they said: “The extent to which householders are obligated is limited with local authorities very constrained in what they can do to mitigate poor levels of recycling.

“To assist local authorities to achieve more challenging recycling rates greater consideration could be given to providing additional enforcement powers to local authorities to encourage residents to maximise recycling from the home.

“The fact that a large percentage of food waste ends up in residual containers shows that there is a need for local authorities to be able to enforce the use of the collection systems we provide.

“The development of national behaviour change campaigns are welcomed to allow a consistent message to be given to all Welsh residents.”

Ministers have previously set authorities a target of achieving a recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2025.

During the 2018/19 financial year, Wrexham Council’s performance level stood at 65.7 per cent.

When asked about the possibility of introducing further minimum statutory targets beyond 2025, officials said more pressure should be put on packaging producers.

They said: “The proposal for increased minimum statutory targets on local authorities post 2025 can only be supported where there is long term security in the markets and suitable sorting and reprocessing infrastructure available for the various recycling streams.

“If targets are applied ahead of this, the burden is placed on local authorities to achieve recycling rates for packaging which it has no control over the recyclability of.

“Priority should be made to encourage producers to provide products packaged in materials which can be sorted and reprocessed through the existing infrastructure and have relatively secure long term markets.

“Any additional requirements placed on local authorities must be supported by the appropriate level of funding to take on these additional requirements.”

The council’s lead member for environment, Cllr David A Bithell, will be asked to approve the response using delegated powers next week.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)