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After nearly half of Wales’ councils missed a new recycling target, the Welsh Government said it has a “longstanding” and “comprehensive” support system in place to get authorities over the line.

Figures published yesterday (Thursday January 29) showed ten of the nation’s 22 local authorities failed to clear a target to recycle 70% of the waste they collect.

Among them was Caerphilly, which at 61.6% showed an improvement on the previous year’s rate but was still the lowest in Wales.

Caerphilly’s cabinet member for waste, Cllr Chris Morgan, described work to meet the “ambitious” target as a “long-term challenge” but said the council was “committed to working towards it”.

The 70% minimum rate was introduced last April – and the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the government whether the target was attainable, and whether authorities have enough support to reach that goal.

“We have a longstanding comprehensive programme of support in place which has successfully supported our local authorities to make improvements to Wales’ recycling performance,” a Welsh Government spokesperson replied.

Rather than focus on the councils which missed the target, the spokesperson offered a more optimistic assessment of the latest figures.

“The achievability of the new 70% target is demonstrated by the fact that more than half (55%) of councils have met or gone above it in the first year, with 90% having improved their recycling performance,” they said.

Councils which miss the government’s recycling targets are at risk of fines reaching into six figures or more, depending on their performance.

Previous council reports in Caerphilly have warned of fines as high as £2 million for failing to keep up with minimum rates – unless the council could show it was trying to improve.

It is understood there is unlikely to be any sort of grace period for councils this time around, despite this being the first year of the higher 70% minimum target.

“In situations where an authority does not meet the statutory target, there is a well-established process in place that operates on a case-by-case basis to assess whether a fine should be applied,” the government spokesperson said.

Penalties are calculated based on the degree to which a council missed the target – but before slapping an authority with a fine, the Welsh Government first invites it to explain why it fell short and provide evidence it is taking steps to meet the target in future.