East Devon District Councillor Phil Twiss vows to improve doorstep recycling.

An East Devon district councillor for Honiton has pledged to “focus very intensively” on waste and recycling.

Councillor Phil Twiss, who has become the deputy portfolio holder for environment, vowed on Monday to update the doorstep recycling service to include cardboard during a meeting of Honiton Town Council.

He told the town council that the district council were looking at “how soon” it could afford to start recycling cardboard.

“I would like to be in a position where we are recycling everything.

“The plan is very simple - by 2014 there will be no landfill at all,” said Cllr Twiss. “The bill is extremely high and in terms of environmental issues.”

He told councillors that the issues with recycling mixed plastics and cardboard had to be resolved and hoped in time the district council could afford to convert its recycling trucks to allow for this.

Deputy mayor Councillor Peter Halse said: “I am concerned about the cardboard situation.

“Nobody is going to take us very seriously unless we can recycle it.

“Everything we buy is wrapped up in some way or another. We have got to get round it some way or another.

“If we can take it to a recycling centre why can’t it be collected from the door? There is no cost involved. It is something we are very behind on.”

He said that services provided by other local authorities and abroad were in some cases better and allowed more waste to be recycled.

Cllr Halse added: “If it is done properly it does not need to cost the council anything. Why ever has it taken us so long.”

Councillor Mike Allen raised concerns about door to door collections in terms of practical support for the aging population in the town.

He said the whole point was to enable people who cannot get to the tip to still get some of their rubbish recycled.