City of York Council is taking delivery of five recycling banks for paper cartons in the latest extension of its broad range of recycling facilities.

The banks are being provided by Tetra Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment) UK as part of its nationwide carton recycling scheme.

The first three  will be located at the Hazel Court and Towthorpe Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and at the Tesco store on Tadcaster Road by the end of this week. A further two banks will put in place at other sites in the near future.

This will be the first time that carton recycling banks have been provided in York and they are designed to take paper-based food and drink cartons, such as those that usually carry fruit juice, milk and soup. A clear description of the type of items that can be recycled will be printed on the side of the banks.

Erin Gardner, waste minimisation officer for City of York Council, said: "We are very pleased to introduce carton recycling to York. Many residents have enquiries about recycling cartons in the past and we hope that by introducing these banks we are helping them with their recycling efforts."

Richard Hands, environment manage at Tetra Pak Ltd and Chairman of ACE UK, added: "Whilst cartons are successfully recycled in large volumes for many years throughout Europe, the UK has a long way to go. It's fantastic news that City of York Council is taking a lead by adding cartons to the list of materials collected for recycling and we very much hope that the initiative is successful.

"We, and our industry partners, are committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK with the aim of reaching a national network of carton collection by the end of 2008. Our work with City of York Council takes us and households in the area one step closer to achieving that."

Residents using the new banks are asked to rinse their cartons and flatten them before placing them into the banks.  This will help to maximise the amount of cartons that residents can recycle.