THE government has handed Lancashire £5million to improve its recycling rates.

The County Council said more of the region's households would be recycling their rubbish thanks to the windfall won by the Lancashire Waste Partnership.

The money will be used to boost the number of households receiving doorstep collections of recyclable waste such as glass, plastic, paper and cans and will be distributed to all councils in Lancashire.

This is turn will help Lancashire reach its own target of recycling or composting 40 per cent of the total waste produced in the county.

County Councillor Brian Johnson, chairman of the Lancashire Waste Partnership, said: "This latest investment in recycling will take us even closer to aim of making sure at least 90 per cent of Lancashire households have doorstep collections for recyclable materials.

"Yet again the enthusiasm of our residents for recycling has helped the county to secure even more waste busting cash.

"We are already well on the way to hitting the government's target of recycling 25 per cent of all household waste by 2005. The government clearly recognises that Lancashire is leading the way with recycling and has shown its faith in the partnership by awarding us £80million in the last month in the form of an £75million PFI approval and a further £5m for recycling initiatives."