Bring back weekly bin rounds call

Householders are worried about smells from food waste

Weekly bin collections should be reintroduced in Conwy county, according to organisers of a public meeting.

Residents at Penrhyn Bay near Llandudno claim overflowing bins are attracting vermin and say the council is not doing enough to encourage recycling.

However, Conwy council said collections every two weeks made people think about what they throw away, and improved recycling was high on the agenda.

It said there was also a plan to introduce kitchen waste collection.

"If you are going to get people to recycle properly then the council needs to collect the recycling every week, not every two weeks," said meeting organiser Felicity Elphick.

The feedback I've had is that it was initially painful but it now works Mike Priestly, councillor with environment portfolio

"It is also vitally important that our health is looked after and this situation will have people fly tipping or using other people's bins, creating a whole social problem," she added.

Householder Nettie Jones, from Rhos-on-Sea, said her bin was overflowing because of inadequate recycling facilities.

"I'm not putting it in the car because you waste valuable resources driving it to the recycling centre which defeats the object," she said.

Councillor Mike Priestly, the cabinet member with responsibility for the environment in Conwy, said the new collection system was going well.

"The feedback I've had is that it was initially painful, but it now works."

He said the bi-weekly collections were designed to make people think aboutwhat they were throwing away.

'Huge strides'

"Best practice across the country is that alternate week collection is succeeding," he added.

Anyone with a rat problem should get in touch with pest control, he said, and anyone struggling to manage with the 240 litre wheelie bin provided could get advice from the council.

Mr Priestly added he would not be completely satisfied until plastic, cardboard and food waste was collected from the curb side.

Mal Williams, from Cylc, the community recycling network in Wales, said one problem was that despite "huge strides" in recycling there were different systems operating in Wales' 22 local authorities.

"It is the growing pains of change," he said.

Food waste collection was the way forward, he added, and would help considerably towards higher recycling targets.

The public meeting takes place at St David's Church Hall, Penrhyn Bay at 1845 GMT on Tuesday 15 January.