Recycling services will be expanded across the borough from Monday, with residents able to save plastic bottles and cardboard from landfill.

The products will join the glass, paper, cans and nine other items already recycled using black boxes, and households have been issued with new blue boxes to cope with the increase.

Barnet Councillor Andrew Harper, cabinet member for environment and transport, said the extended service comes as a reuslt of feedback from residents.

He said: “Recycling has been one of the most important issues for the council over the last few years, and residents have responded to our excellent service by helping to increase the borough's recycling rate more than threefold over the last five years.

“I look forward to seeing the borough's recycling rate continuing to climb over the coming years.”

The extended service is part of a contract between Barnet Council and waste firm May Gurney Environmental Services, which will collect an estimated 20,000 tonnes of recyclables via kerbside collection from 120,000 homes in the area every year.

The council has set itself a target of recycling or composting 35 per cent of all household waste this year, rising to the Government-set target of 40 per cent by the financial year ending in April 2011, to help meet the growing challenge of climate change and the cost of sending waste to landfill.

Recycling rates have been increasing in the borough, but last year the council missed its recycling and composting target last year by 4.5 per cent and is falling short of the rates being achieved by top performing boroughs.

Barnet Labour group environmental spokeswoman Kath McGuirk described the council as a “johnny-come-lately” on plastic and cardboard recycling, which is already underway in other authority areas.

She added: "At the moment not every household in the borough benefits from kerbside collections - particularly flats - and although we've been calling for the service to be extended to these properties the council just don't want to listen.

“Barnet's back-slapping on re-cycling and waste minimisation didn't help them achieve their targets last year, and the truth is they will have to pull their finger out to meet them next year.”