INCREASED recycling provision for people in Comet country flats is being introduced this month.

North Herts District Council is rolling out a new waste and recycling collection service so people in flats can recycle their food waste, plastic bottles, pots, tubs, trays and cardboard along with their paper, cans, tins and glass.

The introduction of the new service follows a successful bid for a grant of £850,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government which allows for the new weekly collection of food waste from flats. Houses in the district received new purple bins earlier this year as part of changes to the area’s recycling scheme.

Cllr Lynda Needham, leader of the district council, said: “We know that people living in flats are keen to recycle more, and this new service will make it easier for them to do that.

“Since we introduced the new collection service for other households this summer, we are already seeing signs of even better recycling rates. By bringing collections from flats in line with other homes, we hope to further reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill. That’s good news for the environment, and good news in terms of controlling the growing cost of waste disposal.”

Kitchen caddies and liners will be delivered to help collect food waste which can then be taken to a new communal bin. New bins will also be delivered for paper recycling, and the bins currently labelled cans, paper and glass will now be used for all mixed recycling, including the newly accepted materials. As with other households, plastic bags cannot be accepted, but they can be recycled at most supermarkets.

Delivery of the new bins and kitchen caddies started last week, with the service rolled out over the next few weeks.

People who live in flats will receive full information on what goes where, along with their new kitchen caddy and liners once the new service begins in their area. For further information, visit the district council’s website at www.north-herts.gov.uk and search for ‘flats recycling’.