Flintshire gets share of £3m Welsh Government funding to meet recycling targets.

Flintshire is one of four councils chosen to receive a share of £3m to develop its recycling services.

Minister for Natural Resources and Alyn and Deeside AM Carl Sargeant has announced £3m in additional funding for Flintshire, Wrexham, Neath Port Talbot councils and Newport City Council to help develop services aligned with the Welsh Government’s ‘Collections Blueprint.’

The funding will allow all four local authorities to invest in new vehicles, containers and depots and equipment.

This includes new Resource Recovery Vehicles (RRVs) and improvements to depots to enable the authorities to improve their recycling rates.

In adopting the Collections Blueprint – the Welsh Government’s recommendation for the collection of waste from households – all four local authorities will be ensuring that they comply with requirements to separately collect paper, glass, metals and plastics.

2015-16 is the first year that Local Authorities are required to meet a 58 per cent statutory recycling target. All four authorities expect to meet this and future targets through the implementation of the changes supported by the £3m.

The funding is part of the Collaborative Change Programme (CCP) – a joint initiative between Welsh Government and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and comes as Recycle Week gets underway.

The Minister earlier this month opted to waive fines totalling more than £1 million for Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil councils over failure to meet their statutory recycling targets for 2013/14.

The decision, which was formally approved on June 3 means that Cardiff will not be forced to pay its £802,000 penalty for failing to meet the 54% recycling target for 2013/14, while Merthyr has been let off a total fine of £224,000.

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 4th 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 £3 million 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.”