Recycling – Know your Waste

In the second of our series of posts to “Know your Waste”, we look at the matter of Recycling and those green bags we put out each week.

What can I put out?

Cardiff Council collects mixed recycling weekly from every household in Cardiff. You can place in your green recycling bags a mixture of:

• Paper;
• Cardboard;
• Plastic bottles and food containers;
• Metal food cans and empty aerosols; and
• Glass bottles and jars.

If you have an excess of Cardboard this can also be collapsed and stacked within a single cardboard box and left out for collection alongside your green bags as long as it is obvious that all this item contains is flattened cardboard.

Shredded paper will be collected as part of your recycling but should be separated into a green bag of its own – do not mix with other recycling items.

At the time of writing the trial of segregated Blue Bin collections for glass items remain suspended and so all glass items should be included within your green bags. Glass items need to remain whole for the safety of operatives and to allow proper sorting of waste. Broken glass items should be safely wrapped and included in your General waste (Black bin).

Green bags can be obtained from Radyr Library during its opening hours or you can order bags online direct from Cardiff Council.

What should I not include?

Recycling can only happen efficiently if the correct items are included in your recycling bags. Please do not include:

• Clothes or shoes – some charities will arrange to collect these from you directly;
• Electrical Items;
• Nappies – clean or soiled;
• Paint tins;
• Plastic bags – consider returning these to the supermarket or using a “Bag for Life” instead of single use bags
• Polystyrene packing and takeaway trays.

What happens to my Waste once collected?

Once your mixed recycling is collected it is taken to Lamby Way Materials Recycling Facility for sorting through a combination of manual and mechanical sorting processes before travelling to the relevant reprocessors to make new goods!

Cardiff is currently looking to achieve 70% recycling of our waste by 2025 – in 2019 -20 we only achieved 58.1% – the lowest of all Council areas in Wales. We have made some improvement since stats were first gathered nationally in 2012-13 when we were at 52.2% but are not there yet and so we need your help!

In one year Cardiff recycles enough glass to cover more than 2,000 tennis courts!

Read more

See the Waste and Recycling section of the Cardiff Council website

View the Council’s A-Z of Waste and Recycling to see how your items should be disposed of safely and responsibly.