Colchester residents are boosting the borough's recycling levels to the top of the national league, according to council figures.

John Simpson, who heads the borough's street services department, said provisional figures for May the new waste collection scheme's first month showed a 13 per cent increase.

Referring to the £750,000 multi-compartment vehicles, he said: "Already, they are playing a key role in helping us collect more recyclables than ever before.

"This is reflected in our provisional recycling figures, which have shown a staggering increase in the amount we are collecting since the service was launched seven weeks ago.

"Last May, we were the top recyclers in Essex, with recyclables making up 25 per cent of all of the refuse we collected."

Published Thursday June 10, 2004

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