HOUSEHOLDS in Worcester will soon be able to recycle plastic and cardboard in their green wheelie bins.

From January Worcester City Council will accept a much wider range of recyclable goods, from yoghurt pots and margarine tubs to Tetra Paks and cardboard boxes.

These items were previously banned by the city council because Worcestershire County Council – which is responsible for sorting, and disposing of the county's rubbish – did not have access to a recycling facility that could cope with such a range of items.

But from next year city council binmen will take the contents of people’s green wheelie bins to a new, state-of-the-art sorting compound in Norton, near Worcester.

The multi-million pound EnviroSort facility is due to open on Monday, November 2, and once fully operational it will be able to process 100,000 tonnes of recycable rubbish every year.

It is not known at this stage if expanding the service will increase the cost of waste disposal for the county council.

Last year 30,000 tonnes of waste thrown out by households in south Worcestershire was diverted from landfill and sent for recycling despite the contents of green wheelie bins being limited to glass, paper, in cans and only some plastic bottles.

In Worcester about 10,712 tonnes of rubbish was recycled in 2008/09, which equates to 36 per cent of the city’s waste.

Mike Harrison, head of cleaner and green services at the city council, hopes the move to accept more items will further boost recycling rates.

“It’s been difficult because up until now people have been unsure as to what they can recycle and what they can’t,” said Mr Harrison, who is in charge of Worcester’s wheelie bin collections.

“Expanding the range of materials we can accept makes it so much simpler. People won’t have to worry about which plastics are accepted.”

Councillor Anthony Blagg, the county council’s cabinet member for waste and sustainability, said: “We are very happy to see that the Envirosort facility, operated by Severn Waste on behalf of Worcestershire County Council, will soon be dealing Worcester’s waste, allowing residents to significantly increase the range of materials they can recycle.”

A spokesman for Severn Waste said: “At the moment we’re shipping material out of the county to be sorted. We won’t need to do that when the Norton facility goes live.

“We just want as many people as possible to recycle.”

Environmental action group Transition Worcester welcomed the move.

Spokesman Robert Wilson describing it as an important step in the right direction.

“We really welcome anything that makes the process of recycling easier for people,” he said.

“This is good news for us all.”