Households are to benefit from a £700,000 scheme to boost recycling.

Every home in the Wear Valley, Teesdale and Derwentside district council areas will receive a 55-litre box, which provides safe storage for products made of glass, plastic, aluminium and paper.

The scheme, which is due to start at the end of next month, follows a successful joint bid to the Government's Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund by the three district councils.

The money will also provide a fleet of eight, custom-made wagons to make kerbside collections of the items.

This will be split between the authorities, with two units going to each of Wear Valley and Teesdale, three to Derwentside and one kept as a spare. Private firms Cory Environmental and Forman Recycling will operate the scheme.

John Shepherd, head of general services at Derwentside District Council, said: "This is a big step forward in our recycling programme. It means we can safely collect glass for the first time. It is a big change to our provision and we are very pleased about it."

Every recycling box will have a barcode, scanned each time it is collected.

"This will help us identify any areas that are not participating in the scheme," said Mr Shepherd.

"That way, if an area has a problem with the process or the collection times, or just isn't interested, then we can go and see them. We hope we have got some strong arguments to persuade them."