PLANS to physically check the content of every bag of rubbish taken to a Gwent recycling centre for items that could be recycled have been met with frustration.

The scheme is set to be rolled out at New Vale Household Waste Recycling Centre, Waun-y-Pound Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, on Monday, June 11.

In the meantime, staff at the recycling centre will be handing out leaflets to centre users, which detail the changes and rules.

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council have said the changes are designed to bring the authority in line with Welsh Government recycling targets.

Last year, Blaenau Gwent had the worst recycling rate of all the Welsh local authorities for the third year running.

Other rules coming into force on June 11 in an attempt to tackle this issue include a ban on “excess side waste” on kerb-side collections.

The council have also told residents they will only collect waste placed inside a wheelie bin, and a maximum of four bags only will be collected from households without a wheelie bin.

A fine of £100 could land on the doorstep of anyone not complying with the rules.

Residents have previously taken to the streets to protest against the council’s troliblocs scheme - a stack of three recycling boxes on a wheeled trolley unit.

The top box is for paper, the middle box is for household metal or plastic packaging like cans, foil, bottles and punnets, and the bottom box is for glass and cardboard.

But some residents say the boxes are difficult to move and cause obstructions for elderly people and the disabled.

Darren Stevens, 44, of Mount Pleasant in Ebbw Vale, has called the council’s approach to recycling an “absolute disgrace”.

“This independent led council was elected off the back of promises they made around recycling and rubbish collections.

“But they’ve been in power for 12 months now and have done absolutely nothing. There is just one recycling centre in Ebbw Vale for the whole borough, but only room for about five cars in it. The queues there are just horrific. I’ve waited there for two hours in the past. Checking every bag which gets delivered there is just going to make this so much worse.

“If you live on a terraced street you used to be able to put your recycling and rubbish out the back in the lanes.

“But now they’ve spent all this money on Trolibocs and new wagons, and they want us to pile all of them out the front on the street.

“The wagons can’t fit down the lanes, and they hold up traffic in the streets. And the Trolibocs are a nightmare for disabled people and the elderly because they take up most of the pavement.

“We live in a deprived area. Fining people isn’t the answer, and it would only make people’s lives worse.”

“It’s just a complete disaster, and the council should be doing much better.”

Other residents have taken to social media to vent their frustrations.

Rebecca Powell said: “My concern is how unsanitary that will be. Will the tip be providing gloves for people?”

“It’s all well and good stating that some types of rubbish/recycling items can be taken home, but some people will be needing to use the tip because they have an overflow of black bags or their troliblocs are full.

“For people to then have to rummage through it all is pretty disgusting, especially if there are women’s sanitary wear in the bags.”

Susan Lewis said: “I think it will cause more fly tipping people won’t want to take them to the skip and have to search through them.”

Chantel Davies said: “The queues up at the tip now are beyond ridiculous. I’ve been up there and sat in a queue for a good hour. Could you imagine how bad the queues will be when this comes into force?”

A spokesman for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council said the initiative is one of several planned to improve recycling performance.

The spokesman said: “From Monday, June 11, every resident visiting the Household Waste Recycling Centre will be required to sort their black bags into material type for recycling.

“We want to ensure that residents in Blaenau Gwent recycle as much as possible and our research has shown that 70 per cent of black bag waste can be recycled.

“All our neighbouring local authorities have similar schemes in place.”