RECYCLING rates in Hull have increased by 10 per cent in the first month since fortnightly collections were introduced.
Families are now recycling and composting almost 60 per cent of the city's waste, compared with 47 per cent last year.
Last year's effort saved the council £2.5m in landfill tax and this year the figure could be even higher.
The ruling Labour party has hailed the jump as proof their changes are working.
Infrastructure portfolio holder, Councillor John Black, said: "This is great news and an extremely good achievement and I would like to thank residents for helping us to accomplish these figures.
"With the move from weekly to fortnightly collections we have seen a huge number of residents eager to take up the opportunity to order extra free recycling bins and these initial findings certainly show they have been using them.
"We hope we can sustain these figures and it is only with the help of residents we can continue to recycle more than half of Hull's waste."
Fortnightly collections of non-recyclable waste were introduced in May as part of a £1m savings drive.
There were concerns at the time it could lead to job cuts, with 36 people at risk.
Unite, the union representing refuse workers, negotiated this down to 24 and the changes eventually went through without any compulsory redundancies after staff were moved to other roles within the department.
Some employees now work a four-day week, with the same hours as before spread over fewer days.
Pete Schofield is Hull convenor for Unite, the union representing refuse workers.
He said: "It was a very good restructure. It was done well and the savings they've made on landfill tax by encouraging people to recycle have been great.
"It's really an example we hold up as a good example of working practice.
"The staff were wholly on board at the end."
Cllr Black praised managers, Unite and the workforce for keeping things running smoothly. He said: "Both management and the trade unions have got to take a lot of the credit for the way in which they've made these changes.
"No-one likes paying taxes and the landfill tax is a European Union-driven, Government-led tax which is only going to go one way and it's going to go up.
"I'm very pleased with the workforce, because this has been a significant change in the work pattern and it's been handled tremendously."
The council's opposition Liberal Democrat group was pleased with the figures but still thought the change in collections had been poorly executed.
Party Councillor Dave McCobb said: "It's great recycling has gone up.
"That still doesn't alter the fact Labour councillors ignored people's views. The move to fortnightly bin collections has been far from smooth.
"In student areas bins weren't emptied at the end of term. Bags of rubbish left out on the street has become a bigger problem, as has missed collections. Labour councillors really need to tackle the problems their rushed decision has created."
