A GWENT council has been given a £1.7 million boost in its bid to cut the amount of rubbish sent to landfill.

The cash will fund extra vehicles and more staff for community-based recycling projects.

Two years ago Torfaen council was rapped by the National Audit Commission for having a meagre four per cent recycling rate.

With the amount of municipal waste expected to double by 2020, the pressure is on nationally to dramatically cut the amount of rubbish authorities bury.

Existing landfill sites in Wales are expected to be full by 2010.

Last year, weekly doorstep recycling took off in the borough, thanks to the efforts of not-for-profit company Torfaen Community Recycling and Torfaen council.

Torfaen is now one of a handful of councils in Wales which are being supported by the Assembly to meet a recycling target of 50 per cent of municipal waste by 2007.

The collection scheme, along with other community recycling projects, will benefit from the cash injection.

The money comes from the National Assembly's Strategic Recycling Scheme, which funds partnership-based projects across Wales.

Councillor John Cunningham is Torfaen's executive member for operational services.

He said: "This means we can start work on some new and exciting ideas, and will also be able to improve the projects we've started.

"We've got to work together to improve the environment by reducing what is sent to landfill. There is so much thrown away that can be recycled and reused."

The borough's weekly doorstep collection of glass, paper, cans and clothes is to be backed by an "extensive publicity and promotional campaign" according to the council.

This is aimed at getting more people involved and boost the amount of waste collected.

Two other schemes to benefit are the Circulate furniture recycling scheme, and Recycle IT, both run by the Garnscychan Partnership in Garndiffaith.

The cash will pay for more staff and new vehicles for both projects, which specialise in collecting, revamping and redistributing furniture and IT equipment.

There are also plans to fund a new regional composting facility which would deal with the kerbside collection of green waste and kitchen waste.