Thousands in Cardiff warned for putting out wrong waste

New smaller 140 litre refuse bins were introduced last summer

More than 4,000 warnings and 109 fines have been issued to Cardiff residents who put the wrong waste out for collection since new rules came in.

The notices have been given to residents for issues including overloading refuse bins, since waste collection changes started last July.

They included the roll-out of garden waste bins and smaller black refuse bins to boost recycling rates.

Cardiff council said residents had generally embraced the changes.

A total of 4,058 notices have been issued to households in the past six months warning residents about issues such as putting out the wrong type of bags or placing non-recyclable materials in a green waste bin.

Those who persisted to put out the wrong waste were given £100 fines, which could generate up to £10,900 for the council.

Most fines - 35 - have been handed out in the Adamsdown area of the city, followed by neighbouring Splott, where 28 fines were issued.

A Cardiff council spokesman said: "This city-wide process was always going to take time to implement due to the sheer scale of the operation. But it is essential that the council meets our statutory recycling target of 58% from all waste collected for this current financial year.

"Last October we announced that the "Stay out of the black… move into the green" campaign was working as tonnage of recycling material collected was up by 11% on the same time last year.

"Food waste had also increased by 15%. We'd like to thank residents for embracing the campaign and the need to increase city-wide recycling levels."

All councils in Wales must recycle 58% of their waste by March this year or face hefty fines.