SMALLER black wheelie bins are to be introduced into Torfaen following a council decision today.

Torfaen councillors have voted to introduce smaller black wheelie bins for the collection of general waste, and maintain a fortnightly collection schedule, at it full council meeting.

The vote follows public consultation earlier in the year which presented Torfaen residents with three options for waste collection designed to meet future Welsh Government recycling targets.

Torfaen currently recycles 52% of its waste and needs to increase this to 58% in 2015/16, and 70% by 2025.

The council faces significant fines of around £100,000 for every 1% it falls below these targets.

The executive member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr John Cunningham, said: “Reducing the amount of general waste that is collected at the kerbside is a proven way of increasing recycling rates and we need more people to use the kerbside recycling facilities if we are to meet Welsh Government’s targets.”

The consultation revealed that Torfaen residents preferred the smaller 140L bins with a fortnightly collection over the other two options- two black bags collected fortnightly, or monthly collections with the existing 240L black wheelie bin.

On this point, Cllr Cunningham added: “While this doesn’t represent the most cost-efficient option for the council, councillors have listened to what the public has to say.

“We are confident that under this new system we will meet our recycling targets."

Medical collections and assisted collections will continue as normal, a fortnightly collection of nappies will be available for those who need it, and extra collections will be provided at key times of the year such as Christmas.

Recycling collections will remain weekly, with the exception of cardboard which is currently collected fortnightly.

Concerns were raised during the meeting by councillors of how larger families will cope.

In response, families of six or more will be able to request a review of their circumstances to see if they qualify for additional capacity.

HoweverCllr Stuart Evans believed that this should be reduced to a family of four or more.

Some councillors also felt that a decision should be delayed until after a decision is made on council mergers.

But officers reminded councillors that delaying this could mean fines for not meeting recycling targets.

During the first year there will be an additional cost to the council of £754,000 to cover the roll out of the new smaller bins, and the council will use the savings it will derive from not sending waste to landfill or processing to pay for the bins over time.

Implementation of the new system is expected during 2015.

Councillors also voted for an amendment to the proposals and moved to introduce liners for food waste caddies.

The estimated net cost to provide liners is an additional £26,000 per year and the council will seek external sources of funding to cover these costs. It is expected that liners would be introduced at the same time at the smaller bins.