SEPARATE recycling bins - one for paper and and one for glass and tins - are 'very likely' to be introduced across Craven, heard a meeting of Skipton Town Council.

Councillor David Noland, a member of the North Yorkshire Council task force looking at proposed changes to waste collection, told town councillors it was yet to be decided, but it was almost certain that residents would as early as next year have not one blue recycling bin, but two.

He said the trouble was in part that people were not rinsing cans out properly before putting them in recycling which meant the paper and card in the same bin was becoming contaminated, could not be sold on and was going into general waste to be incinerated at the council's Allerton Park site.

"Stuff is being thrown away that could be recycled and some things that could be recycled is being contaminated, particularly the paper and card so we are not getting the money we could be getting from the waste that is being collected," he said.

"It is greener and better that we get money from recycling. It looks like the favoured option will be what they do in Selby at the moment, an extra recycling bin. Where we have at the moment the blue bin with all the recycling going in, it is likely we will have two, its not been decided, but it is very likely, one for paper and card, and one for bottles and plastics and glass. And by 2043 compostable waste will also be collected.

"Our current recycling rate is barely 40 per cent of what could be recycled and we are trying to raise that to nearer 60 per cent and obviously better than that would be good. The problem is, waste is getting mixed in, people aren't rinsing out cans for example, glass bottles are breaking and soiling the card and paper."

Responding to concerns that having an extra bin would cause issues for those living in terraces with narrow back streets, he added neighbours would be able to share the same bin, to reduce the number outside houses, and the blue bins would not be replaced, they would just have different lids.

He told last week's full meeting at the Skipton offices of North Yorkshire Council in Belle Vue Square that the recent 'Let's Talk' consultation by the council seeking views on the proposed changes to waste collections had attracted 10,000 responses, the highest number to one of the council's consultations, and that a lot of work had been put in by the task force to come up with a plan.