REPLACING waste and recycling bins has cost Torfaen council more than £200,000 in the past three years.

In the last year alone, 4,160 black general waste bins and green recycling bins were replaced, meaning that around one in ten of all the homes in Torfaen needed a new bin of some sort, costing the authority £76,029.

That was slightly down on the previous year 2011-2012 when 4,800 bins were replaced at a cost of £81,986.80, but back in line with 2010-2011 when the cost of replacing 4,147 bins was £76,081.80.

The figures come against the backdrop of Torfaen’s announcement last month that it needs to find a further £40million of cuts and savings over a four year period from the 2014-15 budget onwards.

Independent group leader, Elizabeth Haynes, has asked if there is not a more efficient way of doing things.

“Perhaps we should look to other authorities to see if there’s a better way to do this,” Cllr Haynes said, who had initially looked into the cost of replacing the bins after a complaint from a resident in her St Dials ward about the length of time it had taken for Torfaen to replace their black bin.

“In the current economic climate the council should always be looking to make savings , and this does seem a lot of money.”

John Cunningham, executive member for neighbourhood services, said: “The figure of £200,000 over three years is an estimation that covers lost, stolen and damaged waste and recycling receptacles.

“Currently, we provide the residents of Torfaen with more than 268,000 receptacles that we collect on a weekly and fortnightly basis – these range from black and green bins to cardboard sacks and food caddies.

“A figure of £200,000 sounds high but this equates to less than five per cent of the receptacles residents use on a daily basis which means that, on average, each receptacle lasts around 20 years – a figure that is in line with other authorities.

“We are, however, always looking at ways to save money and to make our services more efficient.

“We accept that bins are damaged but a large number are also lost and even stolen, we encourage residents to number their bins to save them the inconvenience of losing a bin and to save us the cost of replacing them.”