Flintshire County Council, Neath Port Talbot CBC, Wrexham CBC and Newport City Council have all secured funding to help them develop recycling services as part of the Welsh Government’s Collaborative Change Programme.
The four councils will also be using the money to ensure their services align with Wales’ ‘Collections Blueprint’ which outlines the Welsh Government’s preference for ‘kerbside sort’ collection method of recyclable material from householders.
In March it was announced that an independent assessment of the blueprint would be carried out ‘taking account of new developments in equipment, the results of pilots, changes in markets, and the need for new additional materials to be collected to meet the higher recycling targets’ (see letsrecycle.com story).
This year (2015-16) is the first year that Welsh local authorities have to meet a 58% statutory recycling target. The four local authorities sharing the funding will be using the money to help support changes to their services so they can meet this recycling target.
Funding
The funding will enable them to invest in new containers, depots, equipment, and vehicles including Resource Recovery Vehicles (RRV’s).
Natural Resources Minister Carl Sargeant said: “Thanks to the efforts of individuals and local authorities, Wales continues to lead the UK with its recycling performance and is the fourth best country in Europe at recycling.
“The recycling of waste is important to our economy and can result in additional jobs and training opportunities as more material is managed through re-processors and re-manufacturers.
“I am pleased to allocate a further £3m of funding to local authority partners to help them meet future recycling targets and reduce service costs. As more local authorities adopt the collections blueprint there will be a more consistent universal service across Wales.”
Councils
Wrexham has been awarded £974K and is currently undertaking a waste review. However, it expects to use the money to introduce tiered recycling trolleys for some households and has already piloted the scheme. A spokesperson said: “we have gone as far as we can go with the containers we have. It’s a big jump now to get up to 70%”.
The council will also replace its 12 strong waste collection fleet with more modern vehicles so that it can improve and widen its food waste collection service.
Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for the Environment, councillor David A Bithell, said: “We are grateful to the Welsh Government for their support. We are currently undertaking a review of our waste service with a view to introducing further improvements next year which will increase our recycling rates even further.
“In the meantime I would like to take this opportunity to thank all residents for their recycling efforts that have helped to increase our recycling rates from 3% in 2002 to 56% so far this year.”
Investment
Newport has been awarded £715,000 to improve equipment and upgrade a recycling depot while Neath Port Talbot has received £804,000 to purchase RRVs. Flintshire has received £519,000 to purchase RRVs. The actual total allocated is £3,012,000.
The statutory recovery target in 2013/14 was 52%. Flintshire achieved 55.1%; Neath Port Talbot 54%; Newport 51.7%; and Wrexham 54.7%.
The £3m funding is part of the Collaborative Change Programme (CCP), which is a joint initiative between the Welsh Government and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA).
The idea behind the Collection Blueprint is that if it was rolled out across Wales it should result in high quality recycling, significant savings for local authorities, and improved sustainable outcomes.
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