A PILOT scheme to determine whether alternate weekly waste collections will be rolled out across East Cambs has seen the amount of waste going to landfill halved. Under the scheme, which is being trialled in Bottisham, Lode and Longmeadow, residents put

A PILOT scheme to determine whether alternate weekly waste collections will be rolled out across East Cambs has seen the amount of waste going to landfill halved.

Under the scheme, which is being trialled in Bottisham, Lode and Longmeadow, residents put black bags out for collection one week, and a black box for recyclable material and organic waste the next.

During the weeks leading up to the trial, about 13 tonnes of black bags were collected each week in the villages concerned, but since the pilot began on February 9, the fortnightly figure has been between 15.1 and 16 tonnes - nearly half the weekly amount.

The amount of organic waste being recycled has also doubled, with around 5.32 tonnes being collected before the trial and some 10.26 tonnes collected each fortnight now.

The results of the trial mean the council is likely to consider making the scheme district-wide after May's council elections.

Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Allen, who proposed a second fortnightly trial after concerns that an original trial in Witchford were compromised by villagers' proximity to Grunty Fen, said he believed that alternate weekly collections will be carried out across East Cambs in the future.

"We simply have to do something to reduce the amount going to landfill," he said.

"If we continued to recycle at the rate we did in '96 and '97, we would be paying around £930,000 in landfill tax by 2010."

He and district council Conservative leader Brian Ashton made a presentation to the Soham Neighbourhood Panel last night (Wednesday) about the scheme.

Deputy chief executive of the district council Cecilia Tredget said: "We would like to thank the residents for their huge efforts at the start of this pilot scheme."

Government-funded research last week said that concerns about the hygiene of storing waste for longer periods were unfounded, while environment minister Ben Bradshaw said that an increase in recycling household waste was "the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road".