Neath Port Talbot receives £240,000 for recycling

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council is to receive £237,884 from the Welsh Government to invest in recycling infrastructure.

The funding is to come from the Collaborative Change Programme, which provides specialist advice and support to help local authorities achieve future recycling targets. It will be used to pay for recycling containers, including reusable sacks for green waste collection, food waste bins, and kitchen caddies

It is hoped the money will help improve local recycling rates, as over the 12 months to December 2012, the borough council recycled 44 per cent of its waste – eight per cent less than the 2012 statutory target and the lowest recycling rate of all Welsh local authorities.

So far, 15 Welsh local authorities have received assistance from the programme, with four councils receiving a share of £2.3 million last month.

The allocation of funding follows on from the news that instead of fining councils for missing the first recycling target, the government ‘expects those councils that missed the target to participate fully in the Collaborative Change Programme’.

Minister for Natural Resources and Food Alun Davies said: "This funding will support projects that help local authorities to meet our recycling targets as we work towards a zero waste future for Wales.  

"Thanks to the efforts of Welsh householders and local authorities, we are now recycling over half of our municipal waste, and are looking towards our next target of recycling 58 per cent by 2016.  

"This investment is designed to support local authorities as they continue to make improvements."

Earlier this month, Davies agreed to extend funding for the Collaborative Change Programme until ‘at least’ 2015/16.

Read more about the Collaborative Change Programme or Wales’s recycling rates.