Changes to how waste is collected in Torfaen including a separate food waste and cardboard collection could save the council £26 million.

Officers at Torfaen council have come up with a new waste strategy in a bid to meet Welsh Government landfill targets, which states that 70 percent of waste is recycled by 2025, and avoid fines.

Torfaen's recycling activity increased from 15 percent in 2004/05 to 43 percent in 2009/10 but it has to do more to reach the new targets.

Council officers have come up with a new strategy as it says the 'do nothing approach' would be much more costly.

A report by council officers proposes that food and green waste be separated with food collected on a weekly basis along with cardboard through split body refuse vehicles.

It suggests this will allow longer shifts to be run when the green collections are at their heaviest and shorter shifts or less vehicles through the winter.

The strategy also suggests suspending the green collection for three months through the winter to reduce labour and fuel costs.

These vehicles would then be available to help if needed with other collections at times of adverse weather and at Christmas.

The report also states that a food caddy and a separate box or bag for cardboard would be provided to residents.

It also proposes expanding the existing kerbside sort collections to include tetrapaks and some plastics.

To accommodate these extra types of material the existing recycling fleet would be replaced on a rolling programme over the next three years.

The report suggests the three current recycling vans used for narrow lanes and missed collections are not fit for purpose and are susceptible to breaking down and could be replaced with new purpose built vehicles.

These would be operated by two crews with the third vehicle kept as a spare.

An extra seven vehicles would be needed by the service in total with two of these being funded through a £250,000 grant from the Welsh Government.

The report will be presented to cabinet members on Tuesday.

If the changes are approved and funding is granted, a full weekly food and cardboard collection would start next summer.