Recycling rate
60%
Total waste per person
488kg
Residual waste per person
197kg

Recycling service

Swansea Council provides a multi-stream kerbside collections service for recycling.

It collects:

  • food waste every week, from a green caddy using caddy liners provided by the Council for free; and
     
  • dry recycling every two weeks,
     
    • in single-use green sacks for glass bottles and jars, and metal cans, tins, aerosols and foil;
       
    • in single-use green sacks for cardboard and paper; and
       
    • from a reusable pink bag for plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, and toothpaste tubes.

Swansea Council also collects:

  • garden waste every two weeks, from reusable white bags; and
     
  • non-recyclable waste every two weeks. Residents may put out up to three single-use black sacks every two weeks.

The Council provides a bulky waste collections service for large items. To find out how much this service costs, or to book a collection, residents should visit the Council’s website.

The Council manages five Recycling Centres. Residents must book an appointment before they visit a site.

Visit Swansea Council's website.

Household waste recycling centres

Llansamlet Household Waste Recycling Centre

Llansamlet Household Waste Recycling Centre
51.658, -3.91945

Clyne Household Waste Recycling Centre, Sketty

Clyne Household Waste Recycling Centre, Sketty
51.6064, -4.00016

Garngoch Recycling Centre, Gorseinon

Garngoch Recycling Centre, Gorseinon
51.6653, -4.0178

Penlan Household Waste Recycling Centre

Penlan Household Waste Recycling Centre
51.6484, -3.9622

Tir John Recycling Centre, St Thomas

Tir John Recycling Centre, St Thomas
51.625, -3.89812

In total
All materials
70k
tonnes of waste was recycled
Savings
Selected materials
£6m
saved by recycling instead of disposal
Climate change impact
Selected materials
32k
tonnes of CO2 emissions was avoided

Top 5 UK recycling destinations

1
8,863t
Paper
2
Cowbridge Compost Ltd
Cowbridge, Wales
7,330t
Organic Waste
3
Reuse Collections Ltd
North Elmsall, England
6,975t
Glass
4
5,262t
Organic Waste
5
Biogen
St Asaph, Wales
5,185t
Organic Waste

Where does Wales’ recycling go?

Top countries (selected materials) 2015/16

Glass

Glass icon

Amount recycled
7,122t
CO2 avoided
5,377t
Estimated disposal saving
£804,732
Reported as exported
0%

Top destinations

Metal

Metal icon

Amount recycled
2,450t
CO2 avoided
6,224t
Estimated disposal saving
£276,897
Reported as exported
0%

Top destinations

Organic Waste

Organic waste icon

Amount recycled
19,686t
CO2 avoided
984t
Estimated disposal saving
£2,224,492
Reported as exported
0%

Top destinations

Paper

Paper and cardboard icon

Amount recycled
16,558t
CO2 avoided
9,057t
Estimated disposal saving
£1,871,040
Reported as exported
5%

Top destinations

Plastic

Plastic icon

Amount recycled
4,539t
CO2 avoided
2,433t
Estimated disposal saving
£512,930
Reported as exported
3%

Top destinations

Textiles

Textil icon

Amount recycled
1,248t
CO2 avoided
7,276t
Estimated disposal saving
£141,069
Reported as exported
0%

Top destinations