Recycling sites across Tendring are in for a much-needed facelift with thousands of pounds being spent on upgrading facilities.

Tendring District Council (TDC) is looking to improve bring sites for glass, textiles and cans.

And while some of these facilities are provided by contractors, the Council will be pumping more than £15,000 into the initiative itself.

Last year almost 13,000 tonnes of material was recycled in Tendring.

Included in this figure was 2,027 tonnes of glass, 428 tonnes of textiles, and 16 tonnes of cans.

Michael Talbot, Portfolio Holder for the Environment at TDC, said that the Council was serious about recycling and it wanted residents to be equally enthusiastic.

"The weekly household collection of recycling has proved a major success and people have really taken this on board," he said.

"Now we want to upgrade the bring sites and we hope that we can increase the tonnage from these in future years."

TDC has about 180 glass banks at around 80 sites throughout the District, some of which have remained unchanged for many years and are in need of improvement.

All glass banks are due to be replaced with new ones over the next eight weeks. This is on top of the refurbishment being carried out at can and textile banks as well as new signs.

The glass and textile banks are owned by the Contractors who will meet the cost of the facelift.

TDC will be repainting the can banks at a cost of £5,347 and the signs are costing the Council £9872 plus installation.

Cllr Talbot added: "Although these sites are part of the waste stream they are not dealing with rubbish. They are valuable products in their own right and we need to make these sites as attractive as possible for our users."

Visit our Recycling and Waste pages for more general information