a site it agreed to purchase, during a behind closed doors meeting<\/a> of its Labour cabinet in January, which is has said it will redevelop as a \u201cstate\u2011of\u2011the\u2011art recycling processing facility.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n\n The plans for the former Capital Valley recycling centre, at units one and two on the Kays and Kears Industrial Estate in Blaenavon, are subject to the council gaining planning permission with the intention the site will come into use from 2028.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The council has described the purchase as\u00a0an important step\u00a0towards improving Torfaen\u2019s recycling services.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Latest Welsh Government figures show Torfaen is one 10 councils across Wales that once again\u00a0failed to\u00a0meet the national target that at least\u00a070 per cent of waste is recycled, including food waste that is composted\u00a0and used to generate energy.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Across Wales 12 unitary authorities achieved the target while Torfaen along with\u00a0neighbour Blaenau Gwent\u00a0and\u00a0Caerphilly missed it as did Cardiff, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Anglesey, Merthyr\u00a0Tydfil\u00a0and Wrexham.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Torfaen\u2019s recycling performance\u00a0stood at 65 per\u00a0cent for the 2024\/25\u00a0financial year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2023 the council abandoned plans to potentially reduce collections of wheelie bins to just once every three weeks as part of an effort to reduce the amount of more frequently collected food, and recyclables, that end up in what is known as \u201cresidual\u201d or non-recyclable waste. Instead it agreed to maintain fortnightly bin collections and run a campaign to raise awareness of recycling services.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The following year the council said its plans to revamp its existing site at Ty Coch, in Cwmbran, were no longer\u00a0feasible.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Councillor Sue Morgan,\u00a0the cabinet member responsible for recycling,\u00a0said:\u00a0\u201cA modern processing facility would not only meet current demand but also support new national requirements, including kerbside collections of stretchy plastic film.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEnvironmental services are a growing sector with real potential for local benefits, and creating a modern, well\u2011managed facility will bring this site back into productive use for Blaenavon.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOur current\u00a0recycling\u00a0facility is\u00a0operating\u00a0at full capacity and cannot be expanded any further, so this new location gives us the opportunity to modernise, increase the amount of\u00a0recycling\u00a0we can process, and prepare for future changes in legislation.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n If approved, all kerbside\u00a0recycling\u00a0collected across Torfaen will be taken to the new facility, where it will be sorted and prepared for its next destination.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Contractors will transport materials to specialist reprocessing sites, such as Stormy Down in Bridgend, where Torfaen\u2019s food waste is turned into energy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n As well as needing to obtain planning permission the council has said the project will only move ahead when it has \u201csufficient\u201d funding which is likely to come from a combination of capital funding it holds, money from a fund that compensates councils for processing non recyclable materials and Welsh Government grants.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Torfaen council has been asked how much it paid for the site and what the budget for developing it is.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The council also intends creating a dedicated page on its website to answer\u00a0questions\u00a0and concerns from residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Planning\u00a0for a new recycling processing plant has been underway since 2024 when proposals\u00a0to redesign\u00a0and overhaul an existing centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-479531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}