HOUSEHOLDERS could have just one recycling bin from next year after Craven councillors agreed to press ahead with mixed recycling.

A collapse of the recycling market meant a 'budget swing' of £400,000 heard Craven District Council's Policy Committee.

Instead of making money from the collection and sale of plastic, glass, paper and cardboard, it was now paying in the region of £160,000 per year to get it taken away.

Cllr Carl Lis (Cons) said it was proposed to mix paper and card - currently collected separately - with cans, glass and plastic all together in the one, blue wheeled bin.

Collections would take place on a fortnightly basis and it would mean the end of the hated blue bags, he said.

The introduction of 'co-mingling' will be subject to the approval of the full council, and will also have to have a Technically, Environmentally or Economically Practicable (TEEP) assessment.

Councillors were told the TEEP survey and explanatory letters sent out to residents would cost in the region of £15,000.

Director of services, Paul Ellis, said proposed fortnightly collections of the blue bins would cope with the additional paper and cardboard.

He added cardboard boxes, routinely left next to the wheeled bins, would still be collected.

"We are confident that the fortnightly collections of the blue bins will be able to cater for what is currently in the blue bags," he said.

Cllr Peter Madeley (Lab) asked if it was possible to put separators in the blue bins to make sorting of the waste easier.

But Mr Ellis explained that all the waste would be taken to the transfer station from where it would be collected by recycling merchants to separate themselves.

"The value is not there any more to make it worthwhile," he said.

Council leader, Cllr Richard Foster (Cons) said the TEEP assessment would look at whether it was environmentally friendly for the council's bin wagons to be travelling around the district collecting waste paper.

"Are we actually burning more fossil fuel, and is there a better way of doing it. Hopefully, the TEEP will come out positively and I am sure people will appreciate not having to use the blue bags."