A SECOND Gwent council is introducing fortnightly rubbish collections alongside a major recycling initiative.

Torfaen council is following in the footsteps of Newport and introducing a 'twin bin' collection service in a bid to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

From St David's Day residents in Ponthir and Llanfrechfa - where the scheme will operate on a pilot basis initially - will have their normal black wheelie bin emptied once a fortnight instead of weekly.

Collections will alternate between the regular refuse bin and a new green wheelie bin which will be allocated to residents for garden waste and kitchen food scraps. The waste will be recycled by composting.

There are plans to roll the new collections across the rest of south Torfaen throughout the summer.

Councillor John Cunningham, executive member for operational services, explained: "Everyone will still get a wheelie bin collection every week but what we collect each week will be different.

He added: "We need residents to help us by recycling more and reducing the amount of rubbish they throw away wherever possible.

"It's simple, we're just asking residents to think before throwing away their kitchen food scraps and garden waste and to continue recycling using their black box."

Weekly black box collections of glass, tins, plastic and paper will continue as normal.

Like Newport and other Gwent authorities, Torfaen is battling to meet recycling and composting targets of at least 40 per cent of household rubbish by 2010.

It currently recycles around 15 per cent through the black box recycling scheme and the recycling bank sites.

Green garden waste includes: * Leaves, twigs, grass cuttings and hedge cuttings which can be placed directly into the green bin.

* Food waste - vegetable and fruit peelings, egg shells, tea bags, and leftover cooked food scraps including meat, fish and cheese.

The council is advising residents to wrap their kitchen food scraps in newspaper or magazines before placing them in the green bin.