RECYCLING: REGARDING your article, "Councils criticised over waste recycling" (Echo, Dec 4), your readers may find Stockton Borough Council's recycling activities useful.

Residents receive a paper, glass, cans and battery kerbside recycling service and a garden waste collection to most households with gardens. We recently launched a trial kerbside collection of plastic and cardboard to 14,000 properties.

Our household waste recycling centre at Haverton Hill accepts larger items of waste.

What your report did not make clear was that Stockton is one of the country's best-performing councils for diverting waste away from landfill, which receives less than ten per cent of our overall waste.

While I accept some people object to energy-from-waste incinerators, the facility at Haverton Hill generates enough energy to power a town the size of Hartlepool, and is preferable to landfill.

MORI polls say residents regard refuse and recycling services in Stockton highly. We also pride ourselves on our waste education initiatives.

Our approach to recycling seeks to engage, not alienate, residents. I believe we are achieving this and are on course to meet our 2006-7 recycling target of 20 per cent. - Councillor Steve Nelson, cabinet member for the environment, Stockton Borough Council.