By James Burns

Ever strolled around Cardiff and noticed its finest qualities? Its vast green spaces, its fine Victorian homes, and beautiful modern bay, all adequately placed to be explored conveniently on foot. The Welsh capital has a lot going for it, but the result of such considerations of its offerings has often landed at the same unfortunate exception in conversations with my fellow students. Why is there so much rubbish?

A commute on foot throughout the city that doesn’t feature dodging piles of litter, or bearing witness to a seagull persistently scavenging at a ripped bin bag is an unlikely occasion. So, what is going wrong? Cardiff Council spends £7mn a year on keeping the streets clean, so what is making Wales’ most notable city an urban centre clogged up by the waste of its own citizens?

Rachel from Penylan noted that the “Black bins are small, and they’re only collected once every two weeks, so as soon as you have a backlog of rubbish there’s no way to get rid of it all unless you’ve got a car and can book a slot at the tip. If you don’t have a car, you’re unlikely to have a spare £150 to pay a licensed waste removal specialist to take it. So, it gets dumped wherever is convenient”. Other residents on various Cardiff-based forums concurred with this message suggesting how easy it is to fall behind on collections when they only take place every week or two with just individual bins.

This appears a valid concern, especially when considering Cardiff’s high percentage of HMOs (Homes of Multiple Occupants), which is over 20% in many areas of the city. The changes to the system in the last year also appear to have done more harm than good. Charlotte, a student living in Roath says that the change of the green bin bags to the re-usable bags has “made things worse” with difficulties in personal sorting and unsecure design resulting in rubbish strewn across streets after an encounter with seagulls and storms.

A look from afar does give kinder viewing. Last year saw Wales named the second-best country in the world for recycling, just behind Austria in the global rankings, with both countries recycling 59% of their waste. A closer inspection, however, provides a slightly different narrative; according to My Recycling Wales Cardiff ranks as the joint lowest recycling rate amongst all of Wales’ local authorities, with a rate of 60%. Although, compared to cities across the border, Cardiff is doing well, with the average recycling rate in England at just 44%. Wales’ statistics soar above their neighbouring nations for a number of reasons: Welsh households have had food waste bins for over a decade, and local authorities have prioritised improving their rates.

The root of the problem lies with an examination of antisocial behaviour. According to Keep Wales Tidy, an annual report found the worst results for street cleanliness in the 17 years since the charity’s surveys began. The charity noted that the rise was mainly being driven by a huge increase of on-the-go food and drinks packaging, as well as pressure on council street cleaning budgets.

This applies to the whole of the UK. Just recently, Birmingham saw rubbish and bin bags laid to waste across the city following strikes by workers. Evidently, this is a nationwide issue. Many countries around Europe do not solely rely on this kerbside collection method, with countries like Spain and the Netherlands having large communal bins. This could potentially work in Cardiff, with people lacking the space to store their excess waste, leading to the array of fly-tipping spaces throughout the city. A change to both attitude of its residents, and actions of its council are required for a cleaner, more prosperous city.