Torfaen Borough Council council which is still lagging behind recycling targets could face nearly £1 million in fines.

Two years ago Torfaen Borough Council considered reducing collections of wheelie bins to just once every three weeks to try and address its failure to meet the targets but is now concentrating on reducing waste and increasing recycling.

The council has said it has increased the amount it recycles but hasn’t yet reached the 70 per cent target, introduced in 2024/25, while it had also missed the former 64 per cent target, from 2021 to 2023.

Failure to meet the recycling targets could land it with a £461,800 fine for 2022/23, rising to £512,800 for 2024/25.

Councillor Sue Morgan, who is responsible for waste collections and recycling in Torfaen, said it was “great to see progress is being achieved despite increasing targets” and said that could further improve if more people make use of the council’s weekly food waste collections.

It is collected at the kerbside in brown bins, or caddies, but Cllr Morgan said “too much” is still being thrown away in the purple lidded wheelie bins that are only emptied once every fortnight.

She said: “There is still far too much being put in purple lidded bins that could be recycled, especially food waste.”

Food waste is used to generate energy by capturing gases under a process known as anaerobic digestion and counts towards the recyling target.

The council’s Labour cabinet has approved a six point recycling and waste strategy for 2025 to 2030 which also aims to reduce the amount of material that is thrown away.

Cllr Morgan said: “If you are going to put food in a bin let’s make it a brown caddy that is collected weekly there’s less smell and it is hanging around for less time.”

The 2023 proposal to reduce wheelie bin collections, of “residual waste” that cannot be recycled, was dropped following a public backlash and internal arguments that saw one councillor quit the ruling Labour group. Council leader Anthony Hunt then promised to keep fortnightly collections in line with a ‘raise the rate’ campaign to boost recyling.

Cllr Morgan, who represents Pontnewydd, said: “Two weekly residual bins collections are increasingly rare in Wales.”

Mark Thomas, the council’s director for the environment, said it is making “steady improvement” towards the 70 per cent target and said the strategy would help it build the Welsh Government’s confidence and support it can be achieved.

The report for the cabinet didn’t state the council’s current recycling performance.

Cllr Hunt said the strategy is a “holistic” approach intended to reduce and reuse material with throwing it away the last resort.