THE success of Huntingdonshire s recycling scheme could see the service expanded to include a kerbside collections for glass. So much waste has been reused in Huntingdonshire that the district council has been awarded an extra £75,000 in recycling credits

THE success of Huntingdonshire's recycling scheme could see the service expanded to include a kerbside collections for glass.

So much waste has been reused in Huntingdonshire that the district council has been awarded an extra £75,000 in recycling credits.

In just five years, the district has moved from a well-below-average rate of four per cent to more than 50 per cent - one of the best records in England.

The success of recycling has prompted a major overhaul of waste collection and recycling services, which could see major changes to collection days in many parts of the district and an expansion into glass collections.

Robert Ward, Huntingdonshire District Council's head of operations, said: "A lot of collection days will change but not until the autumn.

"We are also looking at whether we may be able to include glass in the dry recycling collections at the kerbside.

"The cost of running car park bottle banks is quite high. Collecting at the kerbside would save us money and the effect on the environment of car journeys to bottle banks.

"The participation of people throughout the district (in recycling) has been much higher than we expected. We thought around 40 per cent of households would want a blue recycling bins, when they became available, but it's now 70-80 per cent. People have really got into recycling.

With the district council responsible for collecting waste and Cambridgeshire County Council for disposal, the county is hit with a tax on every tonne going to landfill.

"But, when we recycle it, they pay us," Mr Ward said. "We get a proportion of what the county would have paid for landfill. It has been much better than we hoped."

However, the extra money is not all profit. More recycling means extra vehicles are needed and they spend more time on the road, which increases costs.