Latest figures show that less than half of residents in Merthyr Tydfil recycle their food waste. A report covering 2023/2024 said that only 48% of residents in the county borough recycled food waste, compared with 56% across Wales.
An analysis of waste in wheelie bins carried out in 2022 revealed that 30% of it was food waste that could have been recycled in the food waste bin. In the council’s self assessment performance report for 2023/2024, which went before full council on Wednesday, January 8, it said that the percentage of municipal waste reused, recycled or composted decreased in each quarter but resulted in an annual outcome of 64.3% which met the national target of 64% for 2023/2024.
It said that a reason why this was not higher, was partly due to households in Merthyr Tydfil producing higher levels of food waste and recycling less of it when compared to the Welsh average. In terms of the kilograms of residual waste generated per person in 2023/24, 185kg was recorded in the council’s data which matched the target set for the year and was at the same level as recorded in 2022/23. To get all the latest Merthyr Tydfil news straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.
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But the report said that this needed to reduce significantly in order to positively impact the recycling target and that this would be the priority for improvement in 2024/2025 with the target being a reduction to 150kg per person. Councillor Clive Jones said somewhere in the region of nearly 14,000 domestic users were still putting their food waste in the wheelie bin.
He said he was aware that there had been various attempts at educating the public about this but “in this day and age in 2025 we shouldn’t have individuals, when they’re supplied with receptacles, they’re supplied with the bags to put the food waste, are still dumping it in the wheelie bin.” He said it had been discussed a number of times at neighbourhood services scrutiny committee and added “we really need to get this done and dusted because it will increase our percentage of recycling in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil.”