Council decision to extend the doorstep recycling service.

From April, more than 80,000 Wandsworth households will be able to put all their waste for recycling in a single sack when a new doorstep collection service begins. The new easy-to-use service is being made possible because of new machinery that enables recyclable items like to be separated and sorted from a single sack. For the first time, people will be able to recycle textiles and plastics, as well as paper, card, glass and cans.

Funding for the first year of the new service will be met by a £1.4m grant from the London Recycling Fund, while in the longer term the extra costs of more than £1m a year will be met by the council.

The new service will cover every home in the borough with an individual doorstep collection. Households will be able to put out their recycling sacks on the same day as their normal rubbish is collected.

Apartment blocks and housing estates with bulk collection arrangements will also get additional facilities with an extra 500 new euro-bins for paper and card set to be installed from April. These will add to the 300 already in place. By the end of 2006, the council plans to have 1,500 euro-bins at various locations throughout the borough.

Cabinet member for environment and public services Guy Senior said: "Local people should be congratulated for helping us achieve this enormously significant milestone. With the help of the general public we can go on to reach new heights in recycling.

"One of the reasons behind this continued success is the fact that we have made it the easiest thing in the world for people to recycle their domestic waste. We were the first council in the country to introduce a free weekly doorstep recycling service in October 1994, and the huge expansion of recycling banks means that no one at present lives more than a few hundred yards from their nearest one.

"We believe that the improvements we are making to our existing doorstep service in April will mean that this is the year that recycling really takes off in Wandsworth. There will be no excuse for any household not to play their full part.

"It's a 'one sack fits all' scheme - the simplest approach yet devised to get people to recycle. If it's a success in Wandsworth it is sure to be copied by the rest of London. It is not a cheap option but it is the best option if we are to get everyone involved in recycling as a weekly routine."

For more information on recycling in Wandsworth call 020 8871 8558.

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