A WORCESTER recycling chief has called on people to forget about more bin collections and to do more to recycle.

Mike Harrison, head of the city council's Clean and Green team, has responded to fresh Government targets on recycling by insisting the council is determined to help Worcester become greener.

Recycling chiefs at the Guildhall are writing a major long-term strategy which aims to turn the city into a shining example to the rest of the UK.

The council has vowed to "keep the pressure" on city residents by insisting the two-bin fortnightly collection system is here to stay.

Last week the Government produced a new national waste strategy calling on local councils to make sure 40 per cent of all household waste is recycled by 2010 - and 50 per cent by 2015.

Mr Harrison said: "We are as keen as the Government to move recycling forward, and after seeing their waste strategy we are going to re-write ours. My personal view is that it is all about keeping the pressure on by not bringing in more black bin collections for general waste.

"If you make it easy for people to throw rubbish away, they won't recycle as much.

"The Government Waste Strategy has targets of 40 per cent of all household waste to be recycled by 2010 and 50 per cent by 2015.

"We recycled about 26 per cent of household waste last month, but each per cent gets harder, and sometimes it gets to the stage where you have to find new ways to get recycling up. It would be nice to collect more materials, because cardboard is the big one that we don't recycle, but that won't be happening yet."

As the Worcester News reported last week, recycling in the city is up about seven per cent year-on-year.

The majority of homes in Worcester now get a fortnightly rubbish collection service, with recycling collected every other week.

The scheme will be rolled out to north Worcester in the autumn, taking in areas such as Northwick and Claines.