Local people are going greener in East Northamptonshire thanks to a new weekly ‘green box’ recycling scheme introduced by East Northamptonshire Council. The council and their waste management contractors Cory Environmental are delighted with the positive response that residents have given to the new scheme, with the amount of material collected for recycling surpassing all expectations.

In the trial area in the north of the district, where a mixture of plastic bottles, cans, paper, cardboard and textiles is being collected, a total of 41.5 tonnes of these was collected for recycling in the first week – a sharp increase on the amount of paper and cans collected each week before. In the rest of the district (where the boxes are restricted to paper and cans) the paper tonnage also increased sharply to about 35 tonnes and the amount of cans showed a particularly big increase in the first week of the box collections.

Although it is early days, and the first week of any new scheme always results in particularly high figures, these excellent first week results are a good indication of how successful the scheme is likely to be in the future. Many residents were so keen to take part in the scheme that they put their boxes out a week or two early. It is expected that over the next year the new green boxes will result in an extra thousand tonnes or more of rubbish being recycled instead of being dumped in landfill sites.

Councillor Eloise Finch, chairman of the council’s services committee, said: ’We are delighted with the positive initial response we have received to the green boxes. In some streets almost every house had put a box full of recyclables out for collection. This will give our recycling figures a boost.’