BLAENAU Gwent householders who repeatedly fail to use their wheelie bins correctly or recycle their rubbish could be hit with a £100 fine under new plans.

Blaenau Gwent council’s executive committee yesterday agreed to implement a new “traffic light” system to encourage people to dispose of their black bag waste the right way. The system is expected to come into force this summer.

The council is allowed to throw away 10,631 tonnes of landfill in 2012/2013, and will be fined £200 for every tonne over this allowance. As a result, households must be able to contain each fortnight’s worth of non-recyclable waste within their wheelie bin or five black bin bags, but many residents are not sticking to this.

From the summer, households who put extra rubbish on or next to their wheelie bin will have a green warning sticker stuck on their bin. If there is a second consecutive occasion residents will be given an amber sticker. On a third consecutive occasion they will be given a red sticker, and issued with a notice placing a legal duty on them to separate their rubbish and put it in the correct bin. If they ignore the regulations for a fourth time, they will be issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice.

Households who continually fail recycle will also be issued with first, second and final warning letters, with residents told of the fines Blaenau Gwent could face if it does not hit its legal recycling target, which is 52 per cent for 2012/2013.

Council leader Des Hillman said: “We are trying to meet our recycling targets. If we get a fine from Europe and the Assembly it will affect the finances we need to run our first-class front-line services.”

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Fines not the best solution

BLAENAU Gwent’s get tough message with residents over rubbish is, in our view, bound to raise a few hackles.

We can understand the motivation behind the policy, given the stringent recycling targets all local authorities have to meet.

For example, if Blaenau Gwent goes over the 10,631 tonnes it is allowed to send to landfill every year, it will be fined £200 for every tonne thereafter.

That is a difficult burden for any local authority to face, and given the current economic climate will be even harder to bear.

We also realise the value in encouraging as much recycling as possible – and in fact we are supporters of it.

Not only does it reduce the amount going to landfill, which is necessary because many tips are fast reaching capacity, but it is also better for the environment.

That said, however, we do wonder about the method chosen by Blaenau Gwent council, which will involve fining residents for not disposing of their waste properly.

We have long argued that in order for local authorities to reach their recycling targets they need to work with, and not against, the residents they serve.

Threatening householders with a £100 fine if they repeatedly overstock waste bins and fail to recycle properly could, we fear, have the opposite effect to that intended.