Powys County Council is in danger of being fined by the Welsh Government unless recycling figures pick up.

A meeting of the council’s Economy, Residents and Communities Scrutiny Committee on 14 October heard that recycling in Powys had fallen to 65.7 per cent between April and the end of June.

In 2024/2025 the Welsh Government’s legal recycling target of 70 per cent came into force, with a fine of £200 to be levied on councils for every tonne they fall short of the 70 per cent threshold.

Powys was one of 12 local authorities in Wales that hit the target, but the data from earlier this year shows that the council’s recycling performance has dramatically fallen away.

Committee chairwoman Cllr Angela Davies asked: “Why is the recycling performance below target?”

Cllr Pete Lewington stressed: “We get a fine if we don’t hit the target and I think it’s quite a hefty one, what are we doing to put it right?”

Cabinet member for legal and regulatory services Cllr Richard Church said: “The reasons relate partly to a reclassification of some of the materials and definitions.”

He added that the garden waste collection figures had dropped due to the extended dry period of the summer.

Cllr Church believed that the fine was “not automatic” but a possibility.

Information and systems manager Curtis Ross said: “We are starting to see an improvement in quarter two.”

Mr Ross said: “To the end of September there was a 20 per cent reduction in collection, in winter we may see a glut of funding and more activity by the highways team to bridge that gap.”

To help improve recycling rates, he said that the waste awareness enforcement team had been “doubled” and there would be a campaign soon to improve food waste recycling.