WEST Devon residents are now recycling almost 60% of their waste thanks to changes to the recycling and waste collection service introduced by the borough council almost a year ago.

Since the new service started, the amount of waste the council has taken to landfill has dropped by an astonishing 30%.

In a recent visit to the council's recycling depot at Hayedown near Tavistock, Cllr Robert Oxborough, chairman of the environment and community committee, saw for himself the stockpiles of recycled materials waiting to be hauled to reprocessors.

During the visit he watched the crews sorting the waste at the kerbside and listened to their suggestions for improving the service.

Cllr Oxborough said: 'The enthusiasm for recycling in West Devon is overwhelming.

'It is great news that our residents are as keen as ever to recycle and compost as much of their waste as possible.

'If residents can go one step further and sort their recycling in the kerbside boxes, for example keeping all the paper together, that would speed up collections tremendously.'

Cllr Oxborough said materials collected for composting had also increased significantly since the service was extended last autumn to all households in the borough.

'We have managed to compost more than 1,000 tonnes since April and this is used as a soil conditioner by local farms.

'It will help the composting process if residents only put thick brown card in with garden waste, with all tape removed,' he said.

Jane Savage, West Devon's waste contracts manager, said: 'The amount of household waste that is being recycled in West Devon has gone beyond our expectations and we are thrilled with the response.

'There have been some changes since the service was introduced and residents have always met these challenges as they arise.

'For example, we are currently improving the quality of our compost and in order to do this we can no longer accept coloured card in the garden waste service.

'However, we can still accept coloured card in the green recycling boxes or at the recycling centres.

'Our residents are already responding positively to the change.'

The borough's food waste recycling, which has increased four-fold since the collection service was introduced, is processed at a Holsworthy plant which produces electricity for the national grid and spreads the resultant fertiliser on local farmland free of charge.

Cllr Oxborough said: 'With the continued support of residents and our waste contractor, Focsa Services, the council is expecting recycling collections to increase further putting the borough among the top recyclers in the country.'