Villagers' rubbish-free challenge

Villager Lorraine Colthart with one of the black boxes used in the scheme

Villagers have set themselves the challenge of becoming the first "zero waste" community in Wales.

Residents of St Arvans, near Chepstow, already recycle and compost on average 77% of their household waste.

A total of 95% of the village's 261 homes have signed up for the project to reach the 100% waste reduction target by 2024.

Environment minister Jane Davidson praised villagers after touring the community on Friday.

The assembly government is consulting on setting a target for Welsh homes to produce no more than 330 kg of residual waste - non recycled and non composted waste - by 2024.

Homes in St Arvans currently produce annual residual waste of 347kg.

The village's zero waste scheme, which was launched in June 2007, allows householders to prepare everyday items such as cans, glass and paper in black boxes for weekly collection.

Food waste, plastic bottles and residual waste are collected separately.

In February the scheme, which is run by Monmouthshire Community Recycling (MCR), will also collect mobile phones, household batteries and toner cartridges.

I do feel guilty about our level of consumption so it is good to reduce the impact Lou Summers, St Arvans resident

The principle of zero waste includes persuading participants to buy materials which can be repaired, reused or recycled and not buying goods which are overly-packaged.

The only things that cannot be disposed of in an environmentally-sound way are the heavily contaminated or mixed materials like cat litter and disposable nappies.

The scheme will last for a minimum of three years.

Local resident and mother of four Lou Summers said her family are among the scheme's most enthusiastic supporters.

"It's something I believe in," she said.

"It is going to teach the children that they need to recycle and reuse.

"The benefit is your peace of mind."

She said the hardest things to recycle were soft plastic such as packaging contaminated with food as well as hard plastic such as broken toys that no one would want.

But her children knew which items had to go into which box or bag and they had found it straightforward.

"I do feel guilty about our level of consumption so it is good to reduce the impact," she added.

The Local Government Association has calculated that households in the UK send more than 26.8million tonnes of rubbish to landfill every year - the equivalent of almost half a tonne for every person in the country.

The figures also show that Britain sends seven million tonnes more rubbish into landfill than any other country in Europe.