NEW recycling banks for mixed plastics and Tetra Pak have been introduced across the borough in a bid to increase the amount of materials that can be recycled.

Nine mixed recycling banks have been installed in locations where bottle banks were located before the introduction of kerbside glass collections in September 2013.

Currently, the only plastics that residents can put in their green recycling bins are bottles, but the new banks will enable residents to recycle plastics, including yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, food trays, bottle tops and Tetra Pak fruit juice containers.

The plastics that are put in the banks will then be collected by recycling company, Recresco and taken to a plant in Yorkshire to be recycled.

However, cling film, polystyrene and plastic bags cannot be put in the new mixed recycling banks.

Councillor Hayley Eachus, cabinet member for community services and the environment, said: “Currently, only 25.5 per cent of waste is recycled in the borough, compared to the approximately 50 per cent that could be recycled if everyone put everything they can in their green bins.

“We also want to make it easier for people to recycle more by expanding the list of things that people can take along to a recycling bank near to them.

“The new banks, collecting mixed plastics and processing them within the UK, means that now even more can come out of the grey bin to be recycled.”