Council delighted with uptake of waste management initiative

A local authority in England has declared its delight, after a new waste management scheme captured the public's imagination.

Gloucester City Council has revealed nearly 17,000 people in the city have now signed up to an initiative that will see them pay £36 to have their bins collected, the Citizen reports.

The council launched the project - which sees residents pay the fee to have their garden waste collected - last March and it was widely criticised.

Before this point the green bins were emptied by the authority for free, but it has been forced to take cost-cutting measures having lost £3.9 million from its budget.

Councillors had targeted 9,000 participants in the environmentally-friendly venture and deputy leader and cabinet member for the environment Steve Morgan told the news provider the figures were "absolutely brilliant".

Earlier this month, BBC News reported councils in Worcestershire and Herefordshire had spent a combined £8 million on landfill tax between April 2010 and the same month in 2011.

Posted by Joseph Hutton