CONTROVERSIAL plans to scrap the weekly refuse collection for 60,000 York residents in an effort to boost recycling have been given the go-ahead.

From this autumn household rubbish will be collected one week, and recyclable garden waste the following one.

City of York Council bosses have introduced the measures to comply with strict new rules for waste disposal, which could cost the authority up to £10 million in "fines" by 2010 if it did not reduce the amount being sent to landfill sites.

The changes, decided at a meeting yesterday, will affect those 60,000 York residents who already have two wheelie bins - a normal one and a green.

Similar schemes are already run in Ryedale and Hambleton.

About 4,000 tonnes of garden waste could be diverted from landfill sites this year, saving between £140,000 and £225,000 in landfill tax.

Some residents have criticised the plans, saying smelly rubbish would pile up between collections.

Coun David Horton (Lab, Acomb) said he was concerned that introducing the alternating collections would mean the council was "trying to run before we can walk".

He said: "I think we need a short pilot exercise in one area to see how it goes before we go the whole hog. There should be more consultation with the residents of York before we go on with this week on, week off caper."

David Finnegan, director of commercial services, said: "There's no point. We're not reinventing the wheel. It's already happening all over the country and on the Continent."

But Coun Horton was adamant that a trial run was necessary and warned: "You'll (the council) be caught with your trousers down."

Coun Christian Vassie (Lib Dem, Wheldrake) supported the scheme and said it was not a matter of convincing people that recycling was a good idea, but rather a matter of encouraging them to do it.

He put forward several amendments, which were carried. A list will be produced of all the waste that could be recycled, along with how, when and where the recycling could take place.

Information will be posted at household waste recycling sites to inform people on its performance. For example, posters will be put up displaying how much cash has been saved on landfill tax because of recycling, and how that money will go directly to "discretionary spending", funding causes like Scout groups.

The use of compost bins will be promoted, and youngsters will be encouraged to recycle in schools.

Cash prizes will be awarded to community groups which recycle the most.

Household plastic and cardboard recycling will be reviewed.

Updated: 10:15 Wednesday, May 18, 2005