Recycling boost for Wales
“WRAP Cymru is proud to be playing a key role in meeting this challenging target of recycling 70 per cent of the waste in Wales,” said Liz Goodwin, WRAP chief executive.
“In developing Wales’s recycling infrastructure, we will also help boost the Welsh economy, through job creation in the sector. The ultimate goal of enabling waste produced in Wales to be processed within its own borders is a challenge we are determined to respond to,” she added.
Economic slowdown
WRAP Cymru’s direct support for Welsh recycling businesses aims to increase turnover by £6m a year for the next three years, said the organisation. WRAP plans to provide direct advice and support, particularly to small and medium enterprises, supporting them through the global economic slowdown.
The organisation will also support Wales’s push to become a zero waste nation by working with manufacturers to help increase the recycled content of their products.
Meanwhile, late last year new figures for recycling in Wales showed that councils are composting and recycling more household waste.
According to sustainability minister Jane Davidson, "steady progress" was being made.
The amount of recycled rubbish in Wales has risen from 27.7 per cent to 32.2 percent - a rise of 4.5 per cent.
Local authorities which fail to reach the recycling and composting target of 40 per cent by 2010 will face heavy fines.
Early indications
But Davidson said she was confident that the targets would be met. “I am confident from early indications of the first quarter of 2008-09 that we are continuing to go in the same upward direction."
Also speaking at the end of last year Aled Roberts of the Welsh Local Government Association, said waste management had become Welsh council’s number one priority. "This year (2008) councils are already up by more than 4 per cent on the amount of waste they recycle or compost which places them in an excellent position to exceed the first landfill directive target in 2009-2010 and avoid stringent fines,” he said.
