Thousands of householders in Baildon could soon have a second wheelie bin.

Last autumn almost 7,000 households were given wheelie bins to replace traditional dustbins as Bradford Council began phasing in its new waste collection service.

Now the Council's cleansing department is sending them letters asking for green-minded volunteers to take on another bin so their paper, cardboard, cans, plastic and textiles can be disposed of separately.

Eventually the scheme will be extended throughout the district with people in other areas offered recycling bins after the ordinary wheelie bins have been introduced.

Those taking part in the Sort Out and Save scheme would have to put the 240-litre bin out for fortnightly collection by a separate wagon.

The initiative is an extension of the recycling schemes in Bingley and Eccleshill but householders in Baildon will be the first in Bradford to use two wheelie bins at the same time.

Councillor Keith Thomson, chairman of Bradford's waste management sub-committee, said he expected about a third of Baildon households currently using wheelie bins to initially volunteer and hoped that would rise to two-thirds within a year.

He said it was strictly voluntary but added that as it was likely, in a few years' time, to become illegal to put recyclable materials into landfill sites. It was possible it could eventually become compulsory.

He said Bradford currently recycled about eight per cent of household waste through bottle banks and other "bring" sites, adding: "With 'bring' sites, which rely on people having cars, you generally can't get more than about ten per cent of waste recycled but home collection is much more attractive and a lot more people will be able to do it.

"Landfill costs are going up all the time so we need to put less waste in the ground and the way to do that is to recycle more. For every tonne we don't send we'll be saving £30 to £35.

"Our target is to be recycling up to 25 per cent of the district's domestic waste by 2000 and 40 per cent by 2002/3 which will create savings and protect the environment."

Councillor Grahame Thornton (Lib Dem, Baildon) said: "It is welcome because we're a very wasteful society and the less rubbish we have to put in holes in the ground the less we'll have to pay.''

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