BURNLEY'S residents are being urged to get involved in a new recycling scheme set to be launched next month.

From October people will be able to take part in a new kerbside collection service which will include cans, plastic, clothes and cardboard, along with the regular paper collections.

Burnley Council launched their original kerbside collection service 18 months ago but the scheme only covered newspapers which were collected every fortnight.

Since the scheme started more than 2,000 tonnes of old newspapers and magazines have been collected and recycled, saving more than 30,000 trees.

The new service will be tested over the next six months from October until March. Every house in the borough will be given a six month supply of claret bags to save up cans, plastic bottles, cardboard and clothes. The bags will be collected every two weeks on the same day as the paper collection.

Coun Charles Bullas welcomed the scheme and said: "We are very excited to be given the opportunity to expand our kerbside scheme to include new materials.

"This will give everyone the opportunity to do their bit for the environment without the need to use the car to take their recycling to one of our centres.

"Hopefully a large number of residents will take part in the scheme and make it a success so we can continue to expand it."

Coun Bullas said he hoped the scheme would mean Burnley would be able to recycle a further 1,000 tonnes of rubbish over the six month trial period.