SOUTHEND residents can now help the environment more than ever before by recycling empty aerosol cans.

Recycling and Waste contractor Cory Environmental have just announced that they will be accepting aerosols in the pink recycling sacks to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Councillor Tony Cox, the Executive Councillor for Public Protection, Waste and Transport, said: “We are delighted that aerosols can now be processed for recycling and that residents can recycle even more of their waste.

“Recycling aerosols will count towards Southend reaching the target of a 60 percent recycling rate by 2015.”

Following collection, the recycling sacks are taken by Cory Environmental to a Materials Recovery Facility in East London, where the items are separated, generating 15 different material streams for recycling.

The announcement comes after it was revealed in September that rigid plastics, such as toys, garden furniture, plant pots and CD cases would now be accepted at recycling centres in Southend.

The service is offered at Stock Road and Leigh Marshes Household Waste Recycling Centres, after the idea was suggested by residents in a Cory Environmental survey.

For more information about the recycling schemes in Southend visit www.southend.gov.uk/recycling.