A councillor insists that the council must retrieve unused recycling boxes from residents following recent collection changes
Torfaen: A councillor is saying that the council should pick up those recycling boxes they handed out but aren’t using anymore. It’s a bit of a mess, really.
So, here’s the deal: Torfaen Borough Council switched to bags for collecting plastics and cans during their weekly pickups. They still use a black box for glass and other stuff, but those old boxes? They’re just sitting around.
Councillor Nick Horler, who represents Blaenavon, has been pushing for the council to either collect these unused boxes or let folks drop them off somewhere in town. He pointed out that many people don’t have a way to get to the recycling center, which is a 12-mile round trip.
He’s got a point, right? He said, “The boxes belong to the council, so they should figure out how to get rid of them properly.”
Back in September, when he first brought this up, Cllr Sue Morgan, who’s in charge of waste, suggested that residents could share their extra boxes with neighbors or use them for storage. Not the best solution, if you ask me.
At the December meeting, Cllr Horler asked for a plan to collect these boxes from people’s homes. He wants to make sure this plastic doesn’t end up littering the streets or ruining the scenery.
But Cllr Morgan just repeated her earlier advice about sharing boxes and reminded him that one black box is still in use. She said people could stack the extra boxes underneath for more collection space.
She had previously said collecting the boxes would be too costly, but she mentioned they’d keep that idea in mind.