THOUSANDS more Ipswich households are set to go green with the proposed extension to the town's brown bin scheme. Six areas of the town have been earmarked for inclusion in the scheme which collects kitchen and garden waste for composting.

By Jo Macdonald

THOUSANDS more Ipswich households are set to go green with the proposed extension to the town's brown bin scheme.

Six areas of the town have been earmarked for inclusion in the scheme which collects kitchen and garden waste for composting.

The plan, which comes before the borough council's executive committee on Tuesday, aims to increase the number of brown bins in Ipswich by 10,000.

If approved it will mean that 28,000 households will be included in the scheme taking the town's recycling rate to more than 18 per cent by 2003/4.

It will also enable the council to pilot other forms of kerbside recycling, such as dry recycling.

The areas of Ipswich set to benefit from the expansion of the brown bin composting scheme are Rosehill, Priory Heath, Castle Hill, California, Rushmere and Whitehouse.

These areas have been chosen for a number of reasons, including the facts that they are areas with a range of community centres, such as libraries, schools and sports centres, and are not affected by congestion problems and access difficulties.

Collection will reflect the patterns of the collection of other refuse, with brown bins being emptied on the same day as black bins.

The expansion of the Ipswich composting scheme is expected to take place in October and will be followed by a user behaviour survey in August next year.