THE Vale of White Horse District Council plans to step up its plastic waste recycling service - in three years' time.

Kitchen waste will also be targeted in a move to cut the amount going to landfill.

When the council renews its waste collection contract in 2010, mixed plastics will be collected and not dumped in landfill. In the meantime, the council will be adding extra collecting banks for plastics and cardboard at sites throughout the district.

A bank that will take thick plastics and wax drink cartons that are not included in doorstep collections is to be sited at the Tesco store in Abingdon, with other sites yet to be agreed.

Council member Peter Saunders said: "Huge volumes of plastic are going into landfill and the Vale should be considering ways of collecting and rendering the material. We should actively strive for continual improvement in the effectiveness of our waste recycling, particularly in relation to the provision of additional facilities to recycle plastic waste products."

Executive member Jenny Hannaby said the reason the council's contractors did not collect all types of plastic was because it could find only a commercial outlet for good quality plastics. It had found an outlet for mixed plastics but the two extra vehicles and crews needed would not have been cost-effective.

She said: "The cost to collect would have far exceeded the benefit to council taxpayers.

"But when we agree a new contract in 2010, we will insist on provision for the collection of all plastics."

Mrs Hannaby said a record 1,205 tonnes of waste last month had been diverted from landfill.

A new study for the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) shows that, on average, each county household is still throwing away two kilos of waste that could be recycled each week.

Almost a quarter of all waste that is still being dumped could be recycled.