THE first phase of a revolutionary new way in which household rubbish is collected in Redditch kicks off on Monday.

More than 2,000 homes in the town have already received special recycling containers and information leaflets as part of the environmentally friendly pilot project.

Redditch Council has been careful to select a range of different housing types to test the scheme's effectiveness as part of the first phase.

Homes in Church Hill, Winyates Green, parts of Woodrow South, Chiltern House in Matchborough and Wirehill have so far been chosen.

Following this trial, the collections will be phased in across the town from October.

Householders will separate their recyclables into paper and card, glass and metal to be taken away for reprocessing.

The council's new recycling vehicles were due to be delivered yesterday.

Funding for the scheme has come from the Government and officers hope the recycling rate in Redditch will increase from seven per cent now to 18 per cent by 2006.

Normal domestic refuse collections will also continue.