RECYCLING chiefs have vowed to cut through government red tape which limits how much authorities across the country can go green.Ipswich Borough Council today blasted "bureaucratic and unnecessary" the rules by Whitehall put a cap on recycling efforts by councils across the country.

RECYCLING chiefs have vowed to cut through government red tape which limits how much authorities across the country can go green.

Ipswich Borough Council today blasted "bureaucratic and unnecessary" the rules by Whitehall put a cap on recycling efforts by councils across the country.

New legislation introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which came into effect yesterday, restricts councils converting

green waste into compost if it contains kitchen waste.

Like many other councils across the UK, Ipswich has been emptying green waste from people's brown bins and taking it to the town's hi-tech compost plant where it is transformed into a valuable soil improver.

Now Defra ministry officials have stepped in to the anger and consternation of composting groups across the country.

Councillor Harold Mangar, the council's environment spokesman, said: "We are as frustrated as anyone by this daft directive. It is bureaucratic and

unnecessary. We now have to write to everyone in Ipswich with a brown bin explaining the new rules and we want them to know that we are doing

everything we can, in partnership with other councils and professional

associations, to get this legislation changed. I am writing to Ipswich MP Chris Mole asking for help in cutting through red tape so we can carry on with our recycling efforts which have the backing of residents."

Until further notice, residents can only put garden waste in their brown

bins.

For further information, call 32031/07736 826104

* n What do you think? Is recycling worth the effort? Write to Evening Star Letters, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 1AN, or email EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk