DESPITE the opening of a multimillion pound waste transfer station in Abergavenny recycled waste is still being driven almost 300 miles to be sorted.

This month saw the opening of the new £2.3million waste transfer station in Llanfoist, which, along with the new purple bag recycling scheme, aims to increase recycling in the county from 40 per cent to 70 per cent to meet Welsh Assembly targets.

However, following a letter from resident Godfrey Bradshaw, it has come to light that when the scheme was launched, the bags were transported to Cardiff, but since the introduction of the purple and red bags, materials are now sorted in Southampton, 280 miles away from the county.

Mr Bradshaw said, "It's a colourful scheme and is working well. The red and purple plastic bags for our co-mingled recyclables are clearly labelled, with no chance of confusing paper and small card cartons with glass and plastic containers.

"There is however, a rather nasty fly in this cure-all ointment. MCC has put this collection scheme in place because of UK government and Welsh Assembly directives to enforce compliance with reduce landfill and a reduction in the carbon footprint. The former is well conceived, the latter is seriously flawed. A material recovery facility has the contract to sort our co-mingled waste and pass it on to recycling companies but are they local? Do they bring jobs to Wales? Even the sorting is being carried out in Southampton!

He added, "There are two other serious flaws in MCC's approach to recycling. Transportation of the recyclables is costly, not only in fuel, but in terms of the carbon footprint. Residents of Monmouthshire were promised information about their recycling performance. It is now the middle of May and still no figures. I think we have been given a second rate service."

Roger Hoggins, Monmouthshire County Council's Head of Operations, said that the arrangement at Southampton was an interim measure.

He said, "When we launched the purple bag system the bags were transported to the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Cardiff. 

"Since the introduction of the twin stream system (purple and red bags) the materials have been sorted at a MRF in Southampton. Paper collected at the MRF is reprocessed at the Southampton site but paper collected in the skips at the civic amenity sites is transported by Viridor to Aylesford Paper on our behalf.

"The arrangement at the Southampton MRF is an interim measure and we are going to tender for a MRF facility. Costs, distance of travel and how the recycled materials are processed will all form part of the decision when a contract is let. In principle we would support processing recycling material locally, ideally in Wales or at least with the closest reprocessor.  However MRFs are managed on a commercial basis and sometimes the recycled materials may be transported further if their value is greater, or sometimes reprocessors do not have the capacity to accept materials, again affecting income."

Mr Hoggins says the council have previously published the recycling performance for 08/09.

"At that time we were one of the top recyclers in Wales of biodegradable waste (garden and food) but were the worst at recycling dry recycling materials (glass, cans, plastics etc.).

"We are confident that our recycling performance in 09/10 has improved, particularly since the introduction of the twin bags, and that we have passed the Welsh Assembly target of 40 per cent by 2010.

"When the Welsh Assembly publishes the all Wales performance figures we will be sharing this information with the public," he said.

*The new waste transfer station took 34 weeks to build and includes large public and recycling areas and a state of the art waste electrical equipment recycling facility.

This has been adjoined to the smaller existing waste transfer facility and also includes staff accommodation and an adjudication centre.

The facility was built by Willmott Dixon and included ecological features like protecting great crested newts, bats and bird nesting and adding green spaces to help encourage wildlife.

Neal Stephens, managing director of Willmott Dixon, said, "To reduce our carbon footprint we all need to recycle as much as we can, and as often as we can, and this new state-of-the-art waste transfer station will enable the local people to do just that."

He said it will help increase recycling from 40 percent to meet the 70 percent recycling targets set by the Assembly.

He said this would help deduct more of the 30,000 tonnes still going to landfill each year.

Monmouthshire county council cabinet member for regulatory services, Councillor Eric Saxon, enjoyed a tour of the facility recently and met the station's recycling officers.

Councillor Saxon said: "While seeing the plans and designs for an extensive project like this is impressive, nothing beats seeing it for yourself in person and finding out exactly how it works and how it's going to significantly benefit our local community. It really is outstanding and it certainly puts Llanfoist on the green map."

He added: "We only have an estimated seven years worth of landfill space remaining in Wales, and this new, outstanding facility will considerably help us to address this problem, providing people as well as businesses start seeing recycling a part of our everyday lives."