Recycling drive unveiled

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Councils have been urged to place more recycling bins in public places and clearly mark them.

Environment minister Joan Ruddock unveiled details of  Recycle on the Go initiative in London's Hyde Park.

The scheme includes a good practice guide and a code of practice to help those responsible for public places, like councils, to make recycling easy and accessible.

Recycle Now signage is being pushed so people can easily identify where and how to recycle their cans, bottles and paper.

No funding

But no new funding is on offer to councils. A Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs spokeswoman said: "We expect organisations to work with what they have got in place."

She added: "This is not going to be costly - the basic principle of Recycle on the Go is for organisations and councils to work with their existing public place recycling facilities. We recognise that authorities may choose to use existing bins, and simply change the signage to Recycle on the Go branding."

But responding to the initiative, the Local Government Association  claimed the £2bn landfill tax charges unfairly penalises hard-pressed councils that need the money to build recycling plants.

Paul Bettison (Con), chairman of the LGA's environment board, said: "To stop council tax bills rising in the future, ministers must make good on their pledge to reimburse the billions of pounds that councils pay for landfilling rubbish."