Recycling gets a £5.75m boost

Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths has announced £5.75m to help Local Authorities implement improvements in recycling services.

In total, ten local authorities across Wales will receive a share of the funding as part of the Welsh Government’s Collaborative Change Programme (CCP). The funding will allow local authorities to invest in equipment such as recycling vehicles, make improvements to collections and depot facilities and enable them to improve their rates of recycling.

The Collaborative Change Programme Assessment and Award Panel approved a total of 12 applications from 10 local authorities including:

• Newport, which has successfully secured over £730,000 to invest in an improved recycling service for some 6,000 flats, along with a communications campaign to promote the use of recycling services.
• Neath Port Talbot, which will benefit from over £688,000 which it will invest in dedicated recycling vehicles and containers able to access previously restricted areas. Neath Port Talbot also aims to use the funding to provide an improved recycling service, known as Recycle+.
• Flintshire, which will benefit from over £1.5million with which it intends to implement changes to Household Waste Recycling Centres and invest in recycling vehicles. Meanwhile Wrexham have been awarded over £376,000 for additional containers for recyclable materials.
• Torfaen, which will receive from £800,000 to implement improvements to collections and depot facilities and Blaenau Gwent, which will benefit from over £520,000 for a new storage area at its depot. Meanwhile, nearly £120,000 will help Merthyr Tydfil to build an extension and canopy for its storage area at its depot.
• Powys CC, which will receive half a million pounds for bulking and baling equipment for its depots.

The Cabinet Secretary announced the funding during a visit to Gofer Reycling Centre in Abergele, Conwy which has benefitted from Welsh Government support to provide a facility to prepare high quality recyclates from a kerbside sort system.

Lesley Griffiths said:

“Wales already has the highest municipal recycling rate in the UK and would be in the top four in Europe if it were separately reported.  The £5.75million that I am announcing will help Local Authorities to make even further improvements to their recycling services.

“Our aim is for Wales to have the highest national municipal recycling rate in the world with the ultimate ambition of achieving a ‘carbon neutral Wales by 2020’. This funding will help us ensure further progress is maintained to help us meet these targets.