RESIDENTS are being asked to help the county council meet strict Welsh Government recycling targets by shaping future waste and recycling services.

By 2025, 70 per cent of Carmarthenshire’s waste needs to be recycled to avoid heavy financial penalties.

For 2019/2020, Welsh local authorities must meet a statutory recycling target of 64 per cent, which can only be achieved with residents’ co-operation and participation.

That’s why the council is asking people how they think the council’s recycling services could be improved, within the resources it has available.

A public consultation is giving people the opportunity to have an input.

Cllr Hazel Evans, Executive Board Member for Environment, said: “We have a collective responsibility to the environment by recycling as much as possible, keeping communities clean, and ensuring resources are available for future generations.

“We are already helping people recycle by delivering blue recycling bags to every household for fortnightly kerbside collections and collecting food waste every week. We have four household waste recycling centres, around 150 community recycling bring sites, and host regular waste and recycling amnesties in rural areas as well as supporting litter picks conducted by valuable volunteers.

“But our recycling targets can only be achieved with the cooperation of our residents.

“I hope that people will take the opportunity to help us shape our future services by taking part in the consultation. We want to know what barriers people are facing when it comes to recycling, and hear what ideas people have to encourage more people to recycle more of the time.”

The consultation is available on the council’s website, www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales, and runs until March 1, 2019.

Information gathered from this consultation will be used when considering potential changes to the recycling and bin collection service and wider recycling initiatives.

Any changes to services following this consultation will be communicated to the public.