Please place your recycling and waste out by 7am.

We provide a weekly kerbside recycling collection to all households in Monmouthshire.

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Reusable recycling bags for Monmouthshire

Starting on the 21^st of October 2024 we will begin our roll out of reusable bags across the whole of Monmouthshire. This roll out is due to be completed before Christmas 2024. If you have been delivered new re-usable bags, please use these from your next recycling Collection. More information on re-usable bags and the day changes can be found here.

Monmouthshire County Council currently collects paper and card in single use red plastic bags, and cans and plastics in single use purple plastic bags from the majority of properties within Monmouthshire.

Reusable bags were trialled with over 4000 households in Monmouthshire in November 2019. Throughout the trial we gathered a lot of data including feedback from residents on the new collection system, collection round timings and market testing.

The results of the trial were successful and reusable bags have already been rolled out to other small areas, with around 9000 households in total now using reusable bags.

It has been agreed that reusable bags will replace single use plastic bags for recycling collections.

Monmouthshire County Council have declared a climate emergency and we are committed to reducing single use plastics. The new bags will reduce the amount of single use plastic bags we use, therefore lessening our impact on the environment.

There are also financial benefits to using reusable bags for recycling collections:
The recycling market prefers to receive the material loose, so removing the plastic bags should reduce the processing cost and allow us to achieve better value for money.
Purchasing of the current single use plastic bags costs around £180,000 per year. Whereas the reusable bags can be used over and over again so they will cost far less to supply.

You will receive an information leaflet with your bag when it is delivered. The bags will be delivered in a phased approach, therefore you may see households in your local area using reusable bags before you have received one yourself.

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What items can go into the red and purple recycling bags?

Download our leaflet explaining What goes in which bag.

In the red bag you can recycle:

• Paper
• Cardboard
• Junk mail including envelopes
• Newspapers and magazines
• Telephone directories and catalogues

In the purple bag you can recycle:

• Food and drink cans
• Plastic bottles
• Plastic punnets/ ready meal trays
• Yoghurt pots (please rinse)
• Margarine tubs
• Aerosols (must be empty)
• Aluminium foil/kitchen foil (no crisp packets)
• Drink cartons, eg orange juice etc

Glass bottles and jars cannot go in the purple bag, they must go in your glass recycling box.

We cannot currently recycle crisp packets, plastic bags, cling film and polystyrene. Please place these items in with your household rubbish.

Please do not put electrical items or batteries in your red and purple recycling collection. Lithium-Ion batteries as found in mobile phones and laptops can cause fires when sent to the waste disposal facility. It is important to dispose of batteries at battery collection points in shops or at your Recycling Centre.

To find out more about the everyday items you can recycle from each room in your house, visit http://www.recycleforwales.org.uk/full-house

Households using the single-use plastic red and purple bags can collect more bags when required. They are available free of charge from your Local Community Hub or at a local Recycling Bag Outlets

Red and purple bags are provided for Monmouthshire resident’s kerbside recycling only. Red and purple bags cannot be taken to the recycling centres and must not be used for household rubbish. If your recycling bags have been stickered and left by our crews, please email Contact@monmouthshire.gov.uk or call our Contact Centre on 01633 644644.

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Where does your recycling go?

On average we send 10,000 tonnes per annum of red and purple bag material to Material Recycling Facilities (MRFs) from domestic kerbside collections. The materials are sorted by automated systems and hand, prior to being quality checked to ensure a high specification, standardised commodity is sent to specialist approved reprocessors to be turned into new products. The specification does not change by end market and all of the material is processed to European standard e.g. EN643 for recovered paper grades, before the end market is determined. The sorted materials are a commodity and sold domestically and across the globe to export markets. EN463 allows up to 1.49% contamination per load, this will usually be plastic windows in envelopes, plastic wrapper inserts in magazines etc.

Approximately 9% of materials are deemed contamination by the reprocessor and sent to an Energy from Waste facility in the UK (900 tonnes per year).

Approximately 25% of materials are directly exported to foreign countries as a global commodity. The UK has a long tradition of exporting materials across the globe e.g. Welsh coal, slate and steel.

Approximately 65% of materials are reprocessed in the UK.

Malaysian, Indonesian and other South East Asia companies purchase the bales of sorted material for onward processing. The packaging used for the vast majority of goods purchased in the UK will come from these reprocessors. The bales are sorted to European standards but some contamination is inevitable in an automated sorting process that relies on mass public participation. If these companies are disposing of material incorrectly we rely on the Environmental Agencies in those countries to monitor and prosecute where necessary. The material being sent is a commodity that is sorted in the UK before being purchased by the export markets.

More information about where your recycling goes is available on My Recycling Wales.