MORE waste is now being sent to be recycled rather than to landfill sites in Castle Point.

For the first time in the borough, more than half of all waste is being recycled.

In the past six months, residents recycled 51.73 per cent of waste, a huge increase on last year when just 39.94 per cent was recycled.

Trudie Bragg, the council’s head of environment, said: “For the first time we’ve actually recycled more waste than we’ve deposited in landfill.

“It’s really good news for us.”

The rise could be down to a new recycling service introduced in July this year, which included a weekly food and garden waste collection. Dry recyclables and non-recyclables are collected fortnightly.

Ms Bragg said services would be extended further by the end of the year.

She said: “We’ve just introduced our new food waste collection service to flats, and that should be operational by the end of the year.

“Now we are looking to provide those services to our country routes.”

The extra services have also created more jobs, with the council employing 13 extra staff to collect kerbside food waste, while more refuse vehicles have also been bought.

Ms Bragg added: “Before we started, we did extensive consultation to find out if people wanted to recycle. We’re encouraging people to want to recycle, but we’re also finding people themselves are wanting to recycle more.”

Recycling supporter Dot Palmer, 64, of Linden Way, Canvey, praised the council’s work, saying: “In principle it’s a brilliant idea. Tthis recycling business is good for the country and good for the world.”

But she said it was wrong for the council to expect residents to pay for the recycling sacks.

She said: “It’s a pretty bad attitude – if they want us to use them, they should be supplying them.

“You can use newspaper, but they prefer the recyclable bags. They’ll have to put up with the newspaper from me.” As a whole, the Essex Waste Partnership has recycled more than 53 per cent of household waste collected in the past six months.

Ray Howard, councillor for waste, is due to talk about changes to waste services at the council’s cabinet meeting tonight.