TEN thousand homes across Pendle are set to be given new recycling collection boxes as part of a £180,000 green scheme.

Pendle Council are to spend £150,000-worth of funding from the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs on the project, together with £30,000 in council cash.

The first collections will take place from the beginning of November, should the proposals get the thumbs-up from the council's executive committee on September 18.

Part of the cash will also go towards the purchase of a new £70,000 vehicle known as a 'Kerbsider' which has various compartments to help sort materials into three colours of glass.

It is the second phase of a recycling scheme in the borough, but the first for glass and cans.

Ninety per cent of householders in Pendle already have collections for paper and cardboard and 8,000 have collections for cans and plastic bottles.

The scheme for collecting cans and glass bottles was initially designed to provide 5,000 boxes throughout Pendle but a delay has meant there is money left over this year.

Therefore, Pendle Council have proposed to extend the scheme to 5,000 more households from November 2003 to use up the additional funds rather than return them to DEFRA.

Carole Taylor, author of the report to the executive board, said: "It is proposed that an enhanced kerbside box scheme is introduced in order to utilise the underspend and increase recycling rates in the borough."

The expansion will mean approximately 1,200 tonnes of cans and bottles will be recycled every year instead of 600 tonnes.

Recycled material will then be bulked up at the Fleet Street depot in Nelson and transported to relevant markets.