Many homes in Oxford will now be able to take part in a newspaper recycling service, writes Andrew Ffrench.

More than 10,000 homes, which are not already covered by the city's green box recycling service, will soon be served by a special Saturday newspaper collection every fortnight.

Eventually, all households in Oxford will be covered by the scheme, which currently serves 60 per cent of homes in the city.

The new collection service will replace the previously monthly collection, which has been carried out by an independent company on behalf of Oxford City Council. Cllr Eric Lucas, chairman of the health and environment committee, said: "This new Saturday collection service coincides with the expansion of our green box service, which now covers 60,000 homes.

"Our aim is that every house in Oxford should have a simple and convenient way of recycling their household waste from home."

The council will be using a normal rubbish truck for the service, but it will be specially labelled so that the public realise it is for recycling.

The new service will cover parts of Blackbird Leys, Headington, Marston and parts of north Oxford.

All the material collected is sold on to a company which makes recycled paper.