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Around half our domestic waste in Wales is currently recycled. Legally binding Welsh Government targets say it should be at 70 per cent by 2025.

But even then, what do we do with the black bags that make up the remaining 30 per cent because landfill is also due to be phased out?

Mike Williams is from Prosiect Gwyrdd, a group of five councils in South-East Wales seeking a solution to that problem.

"Each of the partner authorities have set their own strategies based on the waste hierarchy: that is don't create it in the first place; recycle as much as possible; and then deal with the materials that remain in the best way possible."

"The current solution is landfill and we're trying to divert it from landfill."

Prosiect Gwyrdd has invited companies to come up with an answer to the problem of what to do with the black bags. Robert Hunt of Veolia Environmental Services wants to build an Energy from Waste plant at Llanwern near Newport.

"You burn the waste under very controlled conditions. You create steam which then generates electricity through the turbine or can be diverted and just treated as heat which will then go to provide heat facilities."

Another company, Viridor, is hoping it will win the Prosiect Gwyrdd contract and intends to build an incinerator in Cardiff.

In the North of Wales a group of councils are also looking at solutions that involve the burning of black bags to create energy.

But Haf Elgar of Friends of the Earth Cymru doesn't believe furnaces are the solution.

"We're concerned that incineration is really an old technology. It essentially takes black bin waste and burns it at a high temperature."

"Most of the carbon is released into the air as carbon dioxide and also other particles are released which can be harmful to the environment. Issues such as ultra-fine particles and dioxins are causing great concern to local residents."

But what are the alternatives? In a plant near Bristol, New Earth Solutions has recently begun taking apart black bags and making use of their contents, taking out metals, plastics and other recyclables.

Peter Mills is the company's operations director. "We find a significant amount left in the waste stream which we can recover and re-introduce into the recycling market.

"Twelve months ago all the material was going to landfill with a perceived zero value. We're now recovering 70 per cent to 80 per cent resource value from that material."

All councils across Wales are having to decide what to do with their black bag waste.

Those in favour on incineration say it's safe and will provide energy from waste. Those opposed want greater emphasis to be placed on newer technologies that will enable more of our waste to be recycled.