PUPILS from All Saints CE Primary School, in Clayton-le-Moors, have benefited from Hyndburn's good recycling record.

They were able to buy new musical instruments through the council's Waste Watching for Schools campaign.

Under the scheme, schools in the borough encourage parents to sign up to the recycling scheme, and they gain points for their child's school every time their blue recycling box is emptied.

These points are then turned into equipment for that school.

And the success of the campaign has helped put Hyndburn Council on the shortlist for a prestigious national recycling award.

The borough has reached the final four councils in the Best Information and Communication Campaign category of the National Recycling Awards 2004.

Residents across the borough have been praised by council bosses for helping keep 477 tons of rubbish from being piled into Whinney Hill landfill.

And today the council revealed that -- with the public's help -- recycling targets set by the Government for next year have already been met.

Recycling started in Hyndburn in March last year. Now the council has revealed that last year 220 bin wagons full of paper, 113 of glass, 28 of cans, and 114 of waste were recycled. And since plastic was added to the scheme earlier this year, 74 tons was recycled between April and August.