MALVERN residents are rising to the recycling challenge and have increased the amount of waste going into their recycling sacks.

The latest figures from Malvern Hills District Council show the average recycling rate for the first quarter of the 2008/09 financial year was 26.7 per cent with June proving to be a particularly good month at 27.3 per cent.

The amount of waste going to landfill has also dropped by 25 per cent since March this year.

Councillor David Watkins, the council’s portfolio holder for environmental control, said: “This fantastic achievement is quite simply down to the continuing efforts of our householders to recycle and also reduce the amount of rubbish they put into their black sacks.”

A consultation exercise on the future of waste collection services in the district is to go before the full council on Tuesday, September 9.