SOUTH Lakeland District Council is gearing up towards broadening its recycling scheme to include plastic and cardboard.

Coun Susan Sanderson, told a meeting of the Cabinet today (January 29) that the authority was keen to ‘extend the range’ of recycable materials it collected.

Coun Sanderson, the environment and people portfolio holder for the ruling Lib Dem administration, said an external report would be considered on February 3 and the potential options as well as the financial forecasts for the cost of extending the scheme would be considered.

“These are development very much welcome by residents,” said Coun Sanderson.

Currently, the council collects general waste, garden waste, paper and glass recycling from the kerbside and recycling banks.

It makes around four million collections a year and over 37,000 tonnes of recyclables.

The authority’s newly-revised council plan for the period 2014-19 makes the environment one of its key priorities.

It says: “We will extend kerbside recycling by increasing the range of recycables collected and the way existing and new materials are collected.”

However, papers before councillors also showed that the authority is planning to reduce the number of recycling boxes currently provided to each household.