Residents in Pendle are being urged to only put out recycling bins for collection when they are more than half full.

The move is intended to make vehicle collections rounds more efficient – but bin lorries will still cover the same routes.

Councillor James Starkie, who champions recycling in Pendle, said: “One of the benefits of the brown bin for recycling is that you don’t have to put it out every fortnight, unless it’s close to getting full.

“We’ve done our sums on this, and whilst we realise the vehicles will still cover the same routes, the fewer bins that are emptied each day means that fewer wagons are needed.

“There are no health issues and if the contents are washed out there won’t be a smell either. It will help us reduce our carbon footprint and save money on fuel costs.”

Pendle residents now recycle around 36 per cent of the borough’s waste.

Brown recycling bins are used to collect plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles and jars. The council have acknowledged that some problems have arisen, with recycling crews regularly having to reject the contents of brown bins because they are contaminated.

Carole Taylor, council waste services manager said: “Some residents use them for different kinds of plastics, such as food trays, yoghurt pots, butter and margarine tubs and plastic bags, but we can’t currently recycle these in Pendle.

"We can’t stress enough that residents should just put the correct material into brown bins.”