Bradford Council dealt with about 210,000 tonnes of household waste last year of which about 44,000 tonnes was recycled.

Over the past three years, the amount of recycling in Bradford has grown by between two and three per cent per year but, since 2003, it has leapt by more than 60 per cent.

Richard Wixey, Bradford Council's strategic director of environment and neighbourhoods, said he estimated the Council would be just short of its target to recycle a quarter of all household waste by April next year.

Mr Wixey said every year the Government was reducing the allowance which can be sent to landfill sites.

He said: "We have targets to reduce waste, reduce landfill and recycle more. Even if 30 per cent is recycled, still 70 per cent is going to the landfill."

"Every year the landfill allowance is less, but the amount of waste we are producing is growing. Also we are a growing population, so as a nation we are producing even more waste. The gap is getting even bigger."

The Council offers some form of recycling for all residents across the district either through collection schemes, bottle banks, or household waste recycling centres.

Ian Bairstow, the Council's head of service, waste and street scene, said this year the authority had introduced new inserts for wheelie bins, which divide them into sections to help people recycle.

He said one of the problems people found was that they did not have enough space for an extra wheelie bin.

"People didn't want a third wheelie bin, so we introduced the insert for the glass, paper and cans," he said.

"Now some people have two 40-litre bins, one for glass, paper and cans, which is collected every month and the other which is for general household waste and collected weekly."

Mr Bairstow said inserts had been delivered to 60,000 households and by the end of June, every household which can accommodate the bins should have them.

At properties where there is not enough space for bins the Council is working with groups like the Aire Valley Recycle in Saltaire and Keighley, where bags are provided for people to recycle paper.

Mr Wixey admitted providing recycling schemes at blocks of flats could be problematic.

He said: "There are communal bins, but encouraging people to bring their waste down to them is difficult. We are leafleting landlords and property owners to encourage people to do this."

The Council employs an education officer and a marketing officer who help raise the profile of the importance of recycling.

About 20 per cent of household rubbish that is thrown away is paper and card.

In Bradford, paper is collected from 140,000 households every four weeks.

The Council recycling vehicle then drops the paper at the loading station at Bowling Back Lane.

From here the paper is taken 80 miles to the UPM paper mill at Shotton near Chester, where it is pulped, cleaned and filtered to remove unwanted glue, ink and staples. The pulp is then pressed and rolled into reels of paper for newspapers.

Recycling one glass bottle can save energy, it can power a 100-watt light bulb for almost an hour, a computer for 20 minutes and a washing machine for ten minutes.

The Council collects glass and cans from 50,000 households every four weeks, which is also taken to Bowling Back Lane.

The glass and cans are taken to Glass Recycling UK in Barnsley.

The glass is separated by colour, cleaned and crushed into pound-coin sized pieces, called cullets. These are melted down and moulded to make new bottles and jars.

Cans are flattened, cleaned and separated using magnets for the steel and eddy currents for the aluminium. These are sent to a local metal reclaimer.

Aluminium cans are shredded, melted down and then the melted aluminium is poured into giant ingot moulds, which are sold to companies to make new products.

And steel cans are melted down, cast into solid slabs and rolled out into foil to make new cans.

Millions of tonnes of garden waste, such as grass cuttings, prunings and leaves, are sent to landfill sites each year, in fact the equivalent to filling the Royal Albert Hall with grass, twigs and leaves more than 70 times over.

Garden waste is collected in Bradford from 100,000 homes every four weeks between February and November.

The waste is delivered to agricultural contractor SJB at Esholt, where it is shredded, mixed with sewage sludge from Yorkshire water and turned into compost.

The Council has been working with the Waste Resources Action Programme and have issued more than 10,000 subsidised home composters to residents in the district. This scheme is being extended into 2007/8.

Mr Wixey said one of the main problem areas for recycling was plastic.

He said: "There is very little UK capacity to process plastic, so plastics go abroad, which doesn't help reduce the carbon foot print."

Mr Wixey said the Council has not ruled out the plans for an incinerator in Bradford to cope with landfill waste which can not be recycled, like plastic, but it is looking at other options.

He said one option is autoclaving, a process which involves something similar to a giant pressure cooker, which sanitises waste so it can be handled.

And another option is a gas plasma, where waste is put in an ark where waste is gasified' leaving very little of it left.

"We want to look at recovering energy from the landfill, so we can recycle even more," said Mr Bairstow.

"But our first priority is to focus on hard waste materials, such as glass, paper and green waste. When recycling these products is embedded in people's minds, then we will focus on plastic.

"Our four priorities are first to reduce waste, second to reuse waste, third to recycle waste and four to dispose of waste."

Bradford has seven household recycling centres. They accept bulky or excess domestic waste and recyclable materials, 65 per cent of which is recycled.

The centres, which are in Bowling Back Lane in Bradford, Dowley Gap in Bingley, Ford Hill in Queensbury, Golden Butts Road in Ilkley, Royd Ings Avenue in Keighley, Sugden End in Keighley and Wilson Road in Low Moor, are open to the public seven days a week, 362 days a year.

In addition there are 78 bottle banks across the district, where people can recycle plastic bags, bottles, paper, cans, clothes and shoes.

Gerald McDermott, of the Council's recycling scheme highlighting the importance for glass recycling, said: "If we don't recycle now, then we will all have to pay.

"If we go over the landfill amount we will be taxed heavily by the Government and that money will have to come from somewhere, probably out of the council tax payer's pocket.

"We also have to think about the future of the planet. If we continue producing rubbish at this rate there will be a problem with methane gases, which will have a greater affect on global warming."

e-mail: ali.davies @bradford.newsquest.co.uk