A Welsh county council is trialling the use of microchipping as part of an effort to encourage recycling as it moves to a four weekly collection.

The Waste and Recycling team at Denbighshire County Council will microchip food waste caddies in four trial areas totalling around 600 households.

All properties will be informed of the project in advance, set to roll out mid November 2019 and run until at least March 2020, and the results of the trials will be used to encourage pro-recycling behaviours.

‘The trial is predominantly focused on identifying none or occasional recyclers so we can pro-actively engage with those households to address any barriers they have, and encourage them to join the majority of Denbighshire people in our war against waste,’ said a council spokesperson.

‘In the vast majority of cases our “soft” interventions at stages one and two of our enforcement process help people to be more responsible with their waste so they never progress onto the harder enforcement measures.

‘Despite thousands of households entering our first stage enforcement procedures, less than 20 have been issued with a fixed penalty notice, or been prosecuted by the courts since 2012, when we introduced the process.’