More than 4,000 tonnes of road chippings, collected by East Riding of Yorkshire Council following last year’s £2 million road surface dressing programme, will be cleaned and stored ready for reuse as part of this summer’s programme, helping the authority save thousands of pounds and reduce its carbon footprint.

In previous years chippings collected by road sweepers have had to be sent to landfill, costing the authority significant sums in landfill tax.

But this year the council has hired recently developed, specialist equipment to clean and grade the chippings for reuse.

Coun Chris Matthews, cabinet portfolio holder for infrastructure, highways and emergency planning, said: “By hiring in equipment and cleaning the chippings for reuse in this year’s scheme, the council is making savings on landfill tax and an overall saving on programme costs of around £26,000.

“Fewer lorry miles from the quarry and keeping emissions involved in the process of surface dressing to a minimum will also help reduce our carbon footprint.”