Broadland District Council is announcing today the introduction of a new district-wide waste collection scheme to increase recycling rates and ensure that Broadland complies with government set recycling targets.

The new collection will operate on alternate weeks, collecting non-recyclable household rubbish one week and recyclables the next. Households will be provided with an extra wheelie bin by the council to store their recyclable waste.

The new recycling bin can be used for paper and card, food and drink cans and plastic bottles, but will be unable to take glass and clothes as these cannot currently be sorted at the central recycling facility that is to be used. They can be disposed of at local textile and bottle banks.

The scheme will be phased in from the middle of March to December, starting in the rural areas of the district, and will help reduce the 53,000 tonnes of rubbish that the district currently sends to landfill site every year. Details of when individual wards will switch over to the new scheme will be published in due course and every households will receive information directly prior to its collection changing.

The drivers for this change are the government set targets for the district to increase recycling from the current rate of 9% to 18% in 2004, rising to 27% in 2006. With the amount of waste collected in Broadland growing by 3% each year, this means that by 2006 the district must recycle an additional 8,460 tonnes of refuse annually.

Councillor Brian Lles, Cabinet Member for Waste Management, said of the new scheme, 'The council has had to change the waste collection scheme to meet its statutory targets. A number of options have been considered in detail and the alternate weekly collection scheme is the most practical and cost effective. Other councils are having to make similar decisions and many, including our neighbours in Breckland and South Norfolk, have introduced the same scheme. Recycling is a community responsibility and Broadland's environmental objectives can't be met without a district wide effort. We are all working hard to have as smooth an introduction of the new scheme as possible'

For further information contact: Maureen Lewis on 01603 430523. More information about the proposed scheme will be provided over the next few weeks.