HUNDREDS of tonnes of waste from Caerphilly and Cardiff have been buried in landfill in Newport since 2015, it has been revealed.

Figures seen by the Argus show, between June 2015 and May 2017, 420.05 tonnes of waste from Caerphilly borough was sent to landfill in Newport, while a further 51.3 tonnes from Cardiff was also sent to the landfill site, off Docks Way, between November 2017 and March 2018.

The figures were revealed following a written question by Conservative Allt-yr-yn ward member Cllr David Fouweather, who said he was concerned the council was "selling" landfill space to other authorities.

"This is plain wrong," he said. "The people of Newport are encouraged to recycle and they're doing their best.

"Is is the case that Caerphilly and Cardiff have reached the limit they're allowed to send to landfill and they way they've resolved this is to sell the waste to Newport?"

But a Newport City Council spokeswoman said it was "misleading" to connect the trend with recycling, saying the landfill site generated £1.6 million in income for the authority last year.

"For decades, Newport City Council has owned a commercial landfill site that takes waste from private companies and other councils," she said.

"While the amount sent for disposal has reduced, there is still a need for landfill to take some waste. For instance, the site has a specialist disposal process for asbestos.

"The majority of Newport’s non-recyclable waste is sent to incineration as part of a shared facility in Cardiff. If this site is not operating because of maintenance, our landfill site is used as a contingency."

As part of Prosiect Gwyrdd, a partnership between Newport, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan councils - which combined are responsible for 40 per cent of all non-commercial or industrial waste in Wales - aimed at developing greener methods of disposing of waste and increasing recycling, the Viridor incinerator in Cardiff's Trident Park, which burns waste from all five authorities and converts it into energy, was opened in 2015.

A Cardiff Council spokeswoman confirmed waste from Cardiff is redirected to Newport in the event the Viridor facility is unavailable.

"The waste is not sold from Cardiff to Newport council,” she said.

And a Caerphilly council spokeswoman said waste from the borough was sent to Newport before the Viridor facility opened in 2015.

"During this period it was the responsibility of each partner to arrange their own disposal during periods where the plan was unavailable," she said.

"Since the commencement of the Prosiect Gwyrdd partnership of five south Wales authorities, this responsibility has moved to the contractor to provide a contingency as per the terms of the contract.

"Newport City Council landfill was chosen as a contingency on the grounds of cost, proximity and logistics.

"This was due to Caerphilly having no operational landfill within the borough and the location of the waste transfer station at Wattsville, Crosskeys."