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New bin system pays off? Denbighshire's Trolibocs a year on
It has been a year since the local authority made the move to the much opposed Trolibocs system, which was rolled out on June 3, 2024.
A spokesperson for the council acknowledged that while the initial rollout of the new service model faced challenges and "did not go as planned", improvements had been made.
The spokesperson said: "We would like to thank our residents for their continued support for carrying out recycling in Denbighshire.
"Last year we acknowledged the rollout of the new service did not go as we planned and quickly implemented a number of changes to improve services across the county during the autumn.
'These changes including new routes, more operatives and vehicles and a strengthened service management team have moved the service forward for the 47,000 properties we collect from across the county.
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'Recycling rates have improved, but we are still in the process of analysing the data, and we will be reporting the 2024/25 performance data to a future Scrutiny Committee. The final recycling figures for 2024/25 will not show the full impact of the new collection model because we were still operating the old collection model for part of the financial year. We will therefore not see the full benefit of the new model until the 2025/26 recycling figures are published. However, we have seen a significant increase in food waste recycling in 2024/25, which has increased by around 16 per cent. We have also seen a nine per cent reduction in residual (or non-recyclable) waste.
"This is important because reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste that is then incinerated is a top priority for the council and was a key aim of the new waste model.
'We aim to have an ongoing programme of informing and educating residents to make continual improvement to our recycling performance. Now that the new model has settled-in, we believe that the service will only get better over time, and that it will result in further reductions in non-recyclable waste and better recycling in Denbighshire.'
The new service, which involved the scrapping of the blue wheelie bin, is 55 per cent funded by Welsh Government. Residents are tasked to separate their 'dry' recycling using a three-tier trolleybox.
A free new weekly collection services, for small electrical items, household batteries and textiles, was also implemented.
The revamped recycling scheme was labelled a "disaster" when it first launched with widespread missed collections; the authority's chief executive and leader cllr Jason McLellan made public apologies as the service ran £640,000 over budget and residents reported rubbish piling up on pavements attracting flies and vermin.
James Davies, then MP for the Vale of Clwyd, labelled the change as "one of the worst decisions the local authority has made".
Denbighshire introduced the Trolibocs stackable, separated recycling system to improve the "quality" of recycling collected and to meet the Welsh Government's 70 per cent recycling target which has been set for all local authorities in Wales.
