PEOPLE in Darlington are being urged to include recycling in their New Year's resolutions.

In some areas of the town, very few households are recycling glass, paper, plastics, tins and textiles using Darlington Borough Council's kerbside recycling scheme.

Shane Shrimpton, environmental services operations manager for the council, said that some areas, including Whinfield and the West End, were doing well, with between 75 and 95 per cent of households using the fortnightly recycling collections.

However, across the town just 45 per cent of the 45,000 households are using the kerbside scheme.

Areas which are not doing well are Red Hall, Branksome, Firthmoor, Lascelles, South Park and parts of the Denes.

Mr Shrimpton said the service only started in September and it would take time for people to get used to recycling.

The council has visited schools to get children involved, so they can encourage their parents to recycle.

Mr Shrimpton said: "People need to say to their neighbours about recycling and get people thinking about it more, because it is so easy to just throw everything in the bin.

"But this is so important, it is for our children and grandchildren's future. We cannot keep putting rubbish in landfill because the earth is poisoned. We have to find ways of living cleaner, otherwise we will be failing those future generations."

Christmas wrapping paper will be collected in the kerbside boxes, but Christmas cards need be taken to recycling amenity sites across the town.

Christmas tree recycling points will also be available.

For more information, including recycling timetables and boxes, contact the recycling helpline on (01325) 388777.

l A group of residents will breathe a sigh of relief to hear that much of their Christmas rubbish will be recycled instead of going to the tip.

For months, residents of Dinsdale Court, in Middleton St George, near Darlington, wondered why they did not have green boxes for recyclable rubbish from Darlington Borough Council, like other home owners in the village.

But Darlington Borough Council has said the residents are next on the list to receive Euro Bins, which are colour coded for recyclable waste.

A council spokesman said the bins should be put in place just after Christmas.