War on Waste in Wales: Recycle for Merthyr Tydfil

Creoso i Cymru. Bore da. Sut ydych i heddiw? That's "Welcome to Wales". "Good Morning" and "How are you today?"

Unfortunately that's about as much Welsh as I can remember from my schooldays but I'm now happy to add to Rhyfel ar Wastraff (war on waste) to my vocabulary and indeed Ailgylchu dros Ferthyr Tudful (recycle for Merthyr Tydfil).

Now, if you're thinking this is all a bit random (and indeed it is), I'm simply recovering from a whirlwind trip, where we got up early and drove to Wales to see my family and drove through the night to arrive back in Suffolk just as the clock struck midnight.

And indeed, here I am, back at my computer with hair like Russell Brand, which is my normal look if I haven't made it into the shower.

However, I'm also sitting here with Bin Envy!

As soon as we got to my mum's house yesterday, or rather mam's house, she got very excitable and dragged me into the kitchen to look at a pair of bins that have revolutionised waste collection in the Merthyr Tydfil valley.

And here they are, a pair of diddy blue bins, comprising a little caddy for collecting food waste in the kitchen and a larger (but still fairly small) bin for putting out on bin day.



The small bin comes with its very own cornstarch liner so that it doesn't even get dirty. And look at what you can put in it:



The food waste is collected every week for in-vessel composting, which according to the organisation Environment for Wales, is the first purpose built facility in Wales.

Now my mum is very happy with this system but she has said there are people in the village that aren't so happy. One woman says she doesn't have any food waste so doesn't want extra bins. I guess the answer there is to send them back or use them for something else.

Another lady said she didn't like throwing food slops away. But hang on a minute, that's what they do anyway in the big black wheelie bins that are permanent fixtures of the street scene.


I remember living in this street, when wheelie bins didn't litter the pavement and you could walk along two-by-two rather than in single file. Just imagine, by reducing rubbish, recycling more and separating food waste in this way, it would be possible to elimate the ugly black bins from the terraced streets in the valleys.

I've just read that Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council has recently announced that it has come top of the league in the general Local Government performance indicator tables for Wales.
In a press release earlier this month Chief Executive, Alistair Neill commented on the result saying "This is really encouraging news for everybody involved in driving on performance within the Council"

He also said "Why don’t we all make the effort to become the best in Wales in recycling too?"

With progressive schemes like this being introduced, I've got a funny feeling that they might just make it. I hope they run a Zero Waste Week. That would be fun and I'd have some other new words to add to Welsh vocabulary too.

And Zero Waste in the valleys might just banish those wheelie bins forever!

Oh nearly forgot, the only other bit of Welsh I remember is "Mae gath yn eistedd yn y basged," Now if anyone can translate that, you will think that I really am bonkers. (Sigh - I think it's time to go wash my hair!)

Visit www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk for more local info.

___________________________________________________