The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has set ambitious recycling targets in order to try and become a "world leader" in waste management.
Local councils in the country have been warned that based on the amount of waste that is currently going to landfill, extra costs of £50 million a year will be incurred by 2014.
Environment minister Jane Davidson has therefore re-iterated that better recycling programmes are an economic, as well as environmental, imperative.
"I want Wales to be a world leader in resource management and I want Welsh councils, Welsh businesses and Welsh workers to benefit from being a high-recycling society," he said.
The new plans will see Wales recycling 70 per cent of its waste by 2025, with zero waste being sent to landfill by 2050.
Gloucestershire County Council also hopes to reduce the amount of material sent to landfill to zero, and has set an initial target of 70 per cent of waste being recycled by 2030.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the recycling industry includes:
