Newport City Council has announced that it plans to introduce changes to the way it collects household waste.

Household rubbish bins and garden waste bins will be collected once every three weeks. Currently these are collected once every two weeks.

The change has been brought in to help the council meet its recycling targets. Currently the council is recycling around 67 per cent of waste it collects. To meet Welsh government targets, this needs to increase to 70 per cent by 2024/25.

Failure to meet this target will see the council liable for fines. At the current recycling rate, the fine from April 2025 would be in excess of £500,000 per year.

All other waste services will remain unchanged. This means that recycling and food waste will continue to be collected weekly, and hygiene bags will be collected fortnightly.

Small changes will be made to recycling containers which will help residents to recycle more of their waste, including:

New blue bags for cardboard and paper. This will be bigger than the current blue box, which the bag will replace, giving residents more recycling capacity.
Glass and electricals will be collected in the green box.
Residents will be asked to bag textiles separately.
Residents will also be able to order more recycling containers if needed.

These changes will be introduced before the move to three-weekly collections.

Analysis of waste collected in Newport shows that almost 40 per cent of what is currently going into household rubbish bins can be recycled at the kerbside.

Many other councils in Wales and across the UK are either considering moving to a three or four weekly collection for rubbish bins, or have already done so.

Councils which have already made the change have reported increased recycling rates as a result, while fears about increased smells, vermin and fly-tipping have not become a reality.

A first phase of the new collection cycle will take place in the spring. This is designed to give us the best information possible about how the new arrangements work, ahead of the full rollout in the autumn.

The first phase will take place in around 12,100 households. A mix of streets and a mix of households has been selected from across the city.

Residents whose streets have been selected for the first phase will be notified directly as to when the changes will take place, and what to expect.

All other Newport residents will then receive information on the changes later in the year, before they come into effect

The council will also make resources and assistance available for anyone who needs help with the changes.

Councillor Yvonne Forsey, cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity, said: “Although Newport is one of the best performing cities in the UK in terms of our recycling rate, we still have work to do if we are to meet future Welsh government recycling targets.

“These important changes will enable us to meet that target while still delivering a comprehensive waste collection service for residents.

“I would urge residents to make use of all of the waste collection services available to them, and to contact us if they need any support or advice around the changes.”

Further information will be made available on the council’s website and shared through the council’s communications channels in the build up to the changes being rolled out later in the year.