A package of improvements to Wrexham’s recycling and waste services is being introduced to make it easier for residents to recycle, improve collections and help increase recycling rates across the county borough.
The changes form part of ongoing work to improve recycling performance and support Wrexham in meeting and exceeding Wales’ statutory recycling target of 70%.
Wrexham Council acknowledges that its recycling performance remains below the statutory target. The recycling rate increased from 60.6% in 2023/24 to 65.1% in 2024/25, and we are now implementing a wider programme of improvements aimed at closing that gap.
Improvements being introduced and developed include:
- New larger, weighted recycling sacks – for paper and cardboard, replacing the existing blue bags, providing additional capacity and helping prevent them from blowing away.
- Extra food waste containers and bags – to encourage more households to use the weekly food waste recycling service.
- More materials collected at the kerbside – including tetra pak cartons and household batteries.
- A reduction in the cost of bulky waste collections – from £57.50 to £25, this will assist in a reduction in fly tipping.
- More cameras deployed to tackle fly-tipping across the Wrexham county borough.
- Proposals for free garden waste collections for residents – removing the £35 charge for residents to have their garden waste bin emptied – (subject to approval from 1st April 2027). This will assist in a potential 3.5% increase in recycling rates.
- Collections taking place on Bank Holidays – helping to reduce disruption for residents.
- New in-cab and route-management technology – improving information available to crews, route planning and the reliability and efficiency of collections.
- 20 refuse and recycling vehicles being replaced – bringing more modern vehicles into the fleet to support a more reliable collection service.
- Dedicated communications support – to keep residents informed about recycling services, changes and improvements.
The improvements build on work already taking place across the service.
Targeted work in areas with lower participation in food waste recycling has already resulted in more than 200 additional tonnes of food waste being collected for recycling, alongside work to provide additional containers and increase awareness of the weekly service.
Modelling using WRAP data and evidence from service changes elsewhere indicates that the wider package of measures has the potential to deliver a significant further increase in recycling.
The final impact will depend on factors including resident participation and seasonal conditions.
Councillor David A Bithell, Deputy Leader of Wrexham Council and newly appointed Lead Member for Environment said, “We know there is more we need to do to improve our recycling performance, and these changes show that we are taking action across the service.
For residents, this is about making recycling easier, improving the reliability of collections and giving people more opportunities to recycle materials from home.
We recognise that we still have further to go, but we have already seen encouraging results from the improvements being made and now have a clear programme of work to help us move towards and beyond the 70% target.
There is still a significant amount of recyclable material going into general waste, so working with residents will be an important part of improving our service.
We want to make recycling as straightforward and accessible as possible while continuing to improve the service residents receive.”
More information on bins and recycling can be found on the Wrexham County Borough Council website.
