Problem
In 2021/22, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council achieved a recycling rate of 66.8%, marking its seventh consecutive year of meeting or exceeding Welsh Government’s recycling targets. Further improvement was needed to meet the 70% target in 2024/25.
While kerbside collections had been optimised, an opportunity remained to improve recycling and composting rates at Recycling Centres (RCs). In particular, small businesses lacked easy access to recycling facilities and needed cost-effective solutions to comply with evolving waste regulations.
The Council had already been separately collecting recycling from businesses for years, ahead of the introduction of the Workplace Recycling Regulations in 2024. However, to further support local businesses and enhance recycling rates, the Council sought a cost-neutral way to allow small businesses to deposit pre-sorted recyclable waste streams at RCs while ensuring full cost recovery.
By aligning with Section 45(1)(b) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and maintaining separate collection requirements, the Council aimed to expand commercial recycling opportunities whilst maintaining its duty to collect waste from businesses. This approach ensured local businesses could meet their legal obligations while improving overall recycling rates across the borough.
Solution
To improve the composting, reuse, and recycling rates at RCs, and help businesses better recycle their waste, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council implemented a scheme allowing small businesses to take cost-neutral trade waste to RCs free of charge.
The scheme was initially launched as a trial in January 2023 at Dowlais RC. Due to its popularity, it was made permanent and expanded to include Aberfan RC from April 2024.
The Council sent details of the new scheme to its existing trade waste customers. To participate, each business is required to sign up and pay a small annual administration fee of £48.70 to cover the cost of their waste transfer notes. This is the only annual cost for participating businesses, and sorted recyclable materials can then be dropped at RCs with no additional disposal costs.
Materials accepted are:
- Paper packaging
- Metallic packaging
- Cold units
- Ink cartridges
- Automotive batteries
- Metals of any kind
- Fridges and freezers
- Fluorescent tubes and light bulbs
- Cardboard packaging
- Glass packaging
- Small mixed electronics
- Gas bottles (Countrywide, Calor and Flo Gas Only)
- Domestic batteries
- Textiles & clothing
- Large domestic appliances
- Non-branded CRTs, TV screens, and PC screens (A charge of £50 may be applied for branded or glass-fronted units)
The scheme helped improve the separation of waste arriving at the site and reduced the knock-on costs and logistics otherwise required by the Council to separate it. The costs of processing this waste can be recovered when the material is sold on to the appropriate facilities as high-quality, separated recyclable material.
Overall, the solution provides a win-win scenario: businesses can dispose of appropriate trade waste free of charge, and the Council receives pre-sorted, high-quality recyclable material to sell. The system not only recovers the processing costs but also reduces the risk of businesses seeking out cheaper disposal costs, which can result in fly-tipping or other illegal waste disposal activities.
Impact
The scheme has enabled Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to produce higher quality, better-sorted trade waste at zero net cost. It has:
- Benefitted small businesses: Significant savings have been made by businesses through reduced collection and disposal costs. For example, business disposal costs for a weekly 360-litre metals and plastics collection would have cost £396.76 a year, eight times the cost to use the new scheme. Further savings also follow through other materials also accepted at RCs.
- Reduced RC waste disposal: Waste disposal at Dowlais RC dropped by 141.5 tonnes between 2023 and 2024, roughly the same weight as 20 adult elephants!
- Reduced fly tipping: 2022/2023 saw 1,177 incidents of fly-tipping before the introduction of the trade waste acceptance scheme, but in 2023/2024, after introducing the scheme, these incidents have decreased to 967, the lowest it has been since 2010/2011.
- Reduced council costs and environmental impact: Reducing the number of collections from customers has reduced fuel costs and its carbon footprint.
- Increased waste quality: A greater proportion of trade waste is now being properly sorted and recycled into high-quality materials, which can be repurposed into products such as concrete, play areas, and MDF.
The scheme has made it easy and convenient for small businesses to be more circular, diverting valuable materials towards recycling, and helping achieve the Council’s target of becoming a zero-waste town by 2050.