Residents say huge pile of rubbish was left on Cardiff street for weeks

Residents say a huge pile of rubbish was left to build up on Aberdovey Street in Splott, Cardiff, for nearly five weeks. Those living at Selwyn Morris Court's say their waste had gone uncollected with one resident despairing, "seems we've been forgotten about!"

The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said the issue was particularly concerning due to the amount of elderly residents living in the area. They said: "There's no access for the pavement so people [were] forced to walk on the road. It's really difficult for them [the elderly residents]".

The unsightly pile of bags was collected on Wednesday afternoon after WalesOnline contacted the local authority. Cardiff Council has apologised to residents and blamed the issue on a "reporting" issue where residential properties and the flats on the street were showing as having had their recycling collected.

But the resident claimed the issue has been an ongoing problem for some months since the recycling waste collection system changed in the area earlier this year. Aberdovey Street has been switched over to using red and blue bags under the introduction of a segregated reycling system, while Selwyn Morris Court residents continue to use green bags. The resident said: "Since the switch over, they have not been collecting [the green bags] weekly. It’s getting left for three to four weeks at a time, but this is the longest it has been".

Read more: Man killed in Cardiff recycling site tragedy named as tributes paid to 'absolute gentleman'

Read more: Thousands join fight over 'appalling' decision about Llanelli school as protest is held

They also mentioned that due to some residents not recycling properly, waste sometimes scatters the pavements when seagulls rip up the bags adding, "I’m constantly going out there, sweeping up, re-bagging everything." For the latest Cardiff news, sign up to our newsletter here.

A council spokesperson said: “Due to a reporting issue, the residential properties and the flats on the street were showing as collected when only the residential properties on the street had been collected. This has now been fixed and the recycling waste has all been picked up. We apologise to residents for the inconvenience and this shouldn’t happen again.”

This summer, more homes in areas across the capital will be joining the 47,000 houses that already use the new segregated recycling system. The "sack sort" scheme forces residents to separate their recycling contents into different caddies. This increases the quality of the recycling and lowers the contamination rate of disposed of recycling from 30% to 4% on average.

Residents are issued with a new blue caddy for glass bottles and jars; a red sack for metals, plastics and food and drink cartons; and a reusable blue sack for cardboard and paper. Residents are being asked to rinse any food and drink cartons, like Tetra Pak, before putting them in the red sacks provided.

However, in Splott, residents were angry as they believed their complaints were not being listened to. Speaking earlier on Tuesday in a local Facebook group, one post said: "The residents of Selwyn Morris Court are reporting it non-stop but we're still waiting."

The anonymous resident we spoke to added: "All I’ve had is ‘it will be passed over’. I’ve reported it on the app, but with the app once you’ve reported it, you can’t report it again the following week. I’ve emailed the waste management team and they’ve said they will pass it on. I’ve chased it with an updated photo a week later, and I’ve received no response.”

In some areas of the city, streets have seen marked improvements since the new recycling scheme was introduced, with one Grangetown resident reporting that "the difference to the cleanliness of the streets since it started is absolutely staggering". The resident said: "I used to absolutely dread walking my dog after bin day. The green bags were dreadful for either blowing open, or getting torn apart by seagulls. The litter would remain for weeks.

"I regularly litter pick my street and I suspected the vast majority of litter I collected wasn't dropped by residents, but had come from their bins. This does not appear to be a problem now. I walked around this morning and the streets were almost completely spotless with barely a single piece of litter to be seen anywhere. I cannot believe what a difference it's made." However, the change has also seen teething issues, including a mass of bin bags - mostly green recycling bags - strewn in a courtyard in the Channel View estate we reported on earlier this year.