KERBSIDE recycling is being rolled out to thousands more South Lakes homes in the New Year.

From January 5, South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) will begin collecting plastic and cardboard from outside an additional 14,000 households in the Kendal area.

It is the first phase of an expansion of kerbside collections that will eventually take in the whole district.

SLDC introduced a kerbside recycling service to collect paper, glass, cans and green waste in 2003 and this has already helped to increase the percentage of waste recycled from around 12 per cent to 43 per cent.

During 2012, SLDC introduced trial collections of plastic and cardboard from the kerbside in areas to the north and west of Kendal.

The aim now is to increase recycling performance to more than 50 per cent and the introduction of kerbside collections of plastic and cardboard is seen as an important way to help achieve that.

To cope with the increase in workload, new vehicles have been purchased to make the collections more efficient and new recycling bags for plastics and cans are being distributed to homes in the roll-out areas. Information leaflets about the changes will also be distributed with the new bags.

Wards included in the first phase of the plastics and cardboard collections are Highgate, Kirkland, Mintsfeet, Romney, Strickland, Underley, Far Cross, Kendal Fell, Kendal Castle, Heron Hill, Kendal Parks, Stone Cross, Burneside, Oxenholme and Natland.

SLDC's portfolio holder for environment, Sue Sanderson, said: “This expansion of the kerbside recycling starting on January 5 is about us providing the best value service for our residents.

“By extending the range of items that we collect through kerbside recycling it helps the environment, reduces the amount of residual waste we have to deal with, creates income and also helps us to meet our recycling targets.

“The roll-out to 14,000 households in Kendal is the first phase and we hope to be able to extend the range of recyclables to every area of South Lakeland in the next three years.’’

A limited number of streets in Kendal will not be getting the plastic and card collection, mainly due to access issues.

They are: Aikrigg Avenue, Captain French Lane, Collin Croft, County Mews, Crook Lea, Fellside Court, Fleece Yard, Haygarth Court, Milnthorpe Road (Back Lane), Natland Nurseries, Natland Park Farm, New Inn Yard, Rock View, Town View, Weavers Court.