Residents despair at 'utter shambles' as streets become 'rubbish dumps' of uncollected waste

Angry residents left with growing “mountains” of uncollected rubbish have demanded Denbighshire’s new recycling system be ditched. Scores of people have taken to social media to share pictures of streets littered with overflowing bins and boxes.

Some people fear a looming health hazard as Denbighshire Council grapples with a new Trolibocs system implemented just nine days ago. Frustrated by missed collections, some residents complain of sending unanswered online forms to the council or spending up to an hour on the phone without response.

Since June 3, weekly collections of paper, plastic, metal, food cartons and glass have used stacked boxes on trolleys. Non-recyclable waste has switched to four-weekly collections, a practice Westminister is now determined to stamp out in England.

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Residents across the county have labelled the new arrangements as an “utter shambles”. However people in other North Wales counties, where Trolibocs are used already, say their collections are now running smoothly after early teething problems. Denbighshire Council said “unexpected issues” were inevitable in the early stages of the roll-out and it believes services will soon improve.

Some parts of the county, such as Rhyl, are reported to be experiencing fewer collection problems. Others, like Ruthin and Denbigh, have been left with “rubbish dumps” on streets and near driveways. Many have taken to social media to air their frustrations.

“This is beyond incompetence now,” fumed one man. A Denbigh resident said non-collections were a “bloody nightmare” and causing “absolute chaos”. A Ruthin woman added: “What an utter shambles, certainly will become a health hazard - a rat and seagull fest.” Another said: “Anyone got a number for the Pied Piper because I think we are going to need him?”

Elements of the new weekly services, such as collections for small electrical items, batteries and textiles, have also stuttered. Intensely irritated, some people have spoken openly about a protest – dumping rubbish en mass outside council offices. The North Wales Live Whatsapp community for top stories and breaking news is live now - here’s how to sign up

One grievance is the amount of money being spent replacing a collection system that was performing well – Denbighshire was above average for Wales and second-best of the six councils in North Wales. Indeed, its recycling rates were better than some councils that already use the system that Denbighshire implemented last week. Some residents have called for an immediate U-turn.

Ruthin councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts has arranged a meeting with the local authority’s CEO to press for improvements. Writing on Facebook, he said: “It’s clear it’s a shambles and I will be working to try and get the mess sorted in Ruthin as soon as possible.”

Matters came to a head last night when photos were posted online of piles of collected rubbish with the tagline, “Ruthin Ratfest 2024”. These showed the situation in Railway Terrace, Ruthin, where household refuse has long been a thorny issue. Uncollected bin bags - but not bins and boxes - were removed this morning (Wednesday, June 12).

As the area has lots of flats, small gardens and narrow alleys - posing problems for access and storage - residents there fear Trollibocs is a one-size-fits-all system unsuitable for areas like theirs. One idea that’s been floated is a new on-street bin store designed to look like a heritage train, reflecting the area’s historic past.

What Denbighshire Council said

The local authority has apologised for shortcomings with the county's rubbish collections. Denbighshire Council expects this to be a short-term problem.

A spokesperson said: “We are still experiencing some teething problems with the roll-out of our new recycling service. Unfortunately, with any operational change of this scale, there will always be a number of unexpected issues at the outset.

“We remain confident that this will settle down over time, and that services will return to the level of reliability that we are used to in Denbighshire. We know that this provides no consolation for anyone who has had a missed collection recently, but we do expect this to be a short-term issue, and to improve over the coming weeks. However, we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by any missed collections.

“We would like to assure residents that we are taking these issues very seriously, and we are doing everything we can to get the new service running as smoothly as possible, as soon as possible. We would like to thank all residents for their patience while our crews adapt to the new service."

The council continued: "We would also like to thank residents for their continued efforts with the new recycling system. It is already clear that the quality of recycling received from our collections has been very good, with very little contamination. We therefore remain confident that this new system will help us to improve our recycling rates and to reach the new statutory target to recycle 70% of household waste.”

The council reiterated a request for residents to use an online form for missed collections. It said this was the “most effective and efficient way to communicate information to our operational team”.

Denbighshire’s recycling woes come as the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) signalled a complete change of tack in England. Households across the border will in the future be able to put recyclables - plastic, metal, glass, paper and card - in a single bin.

The aim is to end the confusion caused by councils operating different systems. All homes in England will be affected, including flats. A timescale for implementation has yet to be set. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox

DEFRA also aims to ensure most households in England have weekly collections of food waste by 2026. The ministry said it wants to “stop a trend towards three- or four-weekly bin collections seen in some local authorities across the UK, particularly in Wales”.

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