DISTRICT councillors will vote on proposals to further improve recycling on Thursday, November 6.

Stroud District Council will decide on recommendations from its environment committee which put forward the introduction of a weekly food waste collection service and an optional, paid for garden waste collection scheme.

It would be available to the 51,000 households in the district.

Cllr Simon Pickering, chairman of the environment committee, said: “We undertook detailed research to understand what our residents really want and it showed that the vast majority of people in the district are keen to recycle more.

“Armed with this information we have been able to put together proposals for an improved service which will achieve this.

“In 2016 our existing waste and recycling contract comes to an end and this gives us the opportunity to make major changes to the services we provide.

“Against a backdrop of financial cuts we’ve come up with a solution which provides an improved and cost- effective service.”

The introduction of the weekly food waste collections would also mean that the remaining waste could be collected fortnightly.

“Smells from fortnightly collections should not be a problem, because the food waste, which is the cause of smelly rubbish, will be collected each week leaving only relatively inert waste to be collected,” added Cllr Pickering.

“Instances of wildlife scattering rubbish by ripping into rubbish bags will also be reduced as bags will be replaced by wheelie-bins, although bags would still be provided for properties with restricted access or which do not have space for a bin.

“The new system will allow people to recycle more and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

“The changes we introduced three years ago have already led to an increase in recycling and these suggested improvements will make an even more substantial improvement.”

Should the proposals be approved, the new system of collections and the optional garden waste scheme will come into place in 2016.

Earlier this month, Gloucestershire County Council signed a contract to build a £9 million plant to recycle the county’s food waste.