NEWPORT City Council has announced when three-weekly bin collections in the city will begin.

Plans to cut bin rounds caused controversy when the council proposed the idea at the end of last year, but despite opposition the cabinet has pushed ahead with the move.

The council said increasingly ambitious Welsh Government recycling targets meant it had to act now or face huge fines for sending too much waste to landfill.

"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," Yvonne Forsey, the cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity, said.

When will three-weekly bin collections start in Newport?

The council is planning a phased introduction for the new collection schedule.

The first steps will begin "in the spring" with a selection of 12,100 city households, and the council hopes that starting off smaller will "give us the best information possible about how the new arrangements work, ahead of the full rollout in the autumn".

The "mix" of 12,100 households have also been chosen from a "mix of streets... across the city".

Residents whose streets have been selected for the first phase will be notified directly and told what to expect.

All other Newport residents will receive information on the rollout "later in the year, before [the changes] come into effect".

Will Newport residents get new bins or recycling containers?

Only collections of non-recyclable waste, in the black bins, will be cut to a three-weekly service.

Other recycling boxes and containers will be collected every week as normal.

The council has announced "small changes" to recycling, 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.

Food waste caddies will be emptied weekly, and hygiene bags, such as for nappies, will continue to be collected fortnightly.

Why is Newport City Council introducing three-weekly bin collections?

Newport council said analysis of waste collected in the city shows "almost 40 per cent of what is currently going into household rubbish bins can be recycled at the kerbside".

Failure to hit Welsh Government recycling targets - which are increasing again in two years' time - could have expensive consequences for the city. 

"At the current recycling rate, the fine from April 2025 would be in excess of £500,000 per year," the council said regarding possible government penalties.