A NEW community recycling advisor is hitting the streets to support residents and help Carmarthenshire increase its recycling rate.
Geinor Lewis (pictured) will be visiting households throughout the county to offer advice on the green bin/blue bag kerbside recycling scheme.
Her work will be concentrated in low participation areas and will involve door-knocking to try and encourage householders to recycle.
Geinor will also carry a stock of replacement food bins and extra blue bags on her van as well as information booklets and collection calendars.
Monitoring work is already underway and one of the first areas Geinor will be visiting is the Llwynhendy and Bigyn wards in Llanelli.
Geinor said: “I’m looking forward to working with communities to help them to recycle more of their rubbish. By talking to residents I can sort out any issues they may have from something as simple as not having a green food bin to not knowing when their collection day is or just by explaining how the scheme works and why it is important that we all take part.”
The council has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund, through the Welsh Government, for the new post. It forms part of the South West Wales Materials Efficiency project with Pembrokeshire County Council.
The aim of the project is to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by promoting reuse and recycling.
Executive Board Member for Street Scene Cllr Colin Evans said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for our residents to recycle and our new community recycling advisor will help us to do that.
“Geinor is an integral part of the team and will help us to reach our targets by increasing participation at the kerbside.”
The council must reach a 52% recycling rate by the end of 2012/13 increasing to 70% by 2025. Failure to do so could result in large financial penalties.
For further information on recycling please visit www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/recycling, follow on Twitter @carmsccpress or like on Facebook.
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