KERBSIDE recycling of plastics and cardboard could be extended to thousands more homes in Kendal – with plans to roll-out the service across the whole of South Lakeland.

A proposal to go before a meeting of South Lakeland District Council’s (SLDC) Cabinet on Wednesday, recommends extending the plastics and cardboard collections to southern and eastern areas of Kendal in 2014/15.

This follows a successful trial, started in 2012, where 7,500 homes in Burneside and parts of Kendal had their plastics and cardboard collected from the kerbside, in addition to the existing district-wide kerbside collections of paper, glass and cans.

Residents taking part in the trial filled in feedback questionnaires, with the results showing support for an increase in the range of materials collected from the kerbside.

Over the next three years SLDC is now proposing to further extend district-wide kerbside recycling collections to include textiles, small electrical items and food waste, as it seeks to achieve a recycling rate in excess of 50%.

The authority’s Council Plan target is to recycle 50% of waste collected in the district. In 2012/13 SLDC was achieving a 43% recycling rate.

The first step would be to roll-out fortnightly collections of plastics and cardboard to southern and eastern areas of Kendal in the next year.

This would be followed by a roll-out of the plastics and cardboard collections to the whole district during 2015/16.

The staged roll-out of the expanded collection service is necessary due to the logistical considerations of implementing the expansion, which includes purchasing new types of recycling collection vehicles and new containers for residents to put their plastics and cardboard in.

As a third step, work would commence to consider how food waste could be collected and recycled, with a possible kerbside collection from 2016/17.

South Lakeland District Councillor, Sue Sanderson, Portfolio Holder for Environment and People, said: “Extending kerbside recycling by increasing the range of recyclables collected is a key environmental ambition in our Council Plan.

“We want to explore options to create a sustainable waste collection service.”