Better recycling service for homes

THOUSANDS of homes will benefit from improved refuse collections as the North Yorkshire area with the region’s highest recycling rates attempts to prevent more rubbish ending up in landfill sites.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Feb 2011, 09:55 BST

Ryedale District Council announced yesterday that it is introducing doorstep collections for cardboard and empty plastic bottles for 24,500 households.

The council’s recycling rate already stands at 51.9 per cent – 12,300 tonnes a year – the highest in the region.

It was one of the first local authorities in the country to introduce recycling services for glass and paper in 1989.

Alternative weekly collections from households were introduced in 2003 and led to recycling rates rocketing from 11 per cent to more than 50 per cent.

The council’s environmental co-ordinator, John Brown, said: “We have always been at the forefront of recycling, and these new services will help us increase rates even further.”

The new services are not expected to cost council taxpayers any more due to savings from landfill taxes.

They will be phased in from the autumn over the next year.

North Yorkshire