THE ground-breaking green regime introduced to a quarter of district homes last month has proved a big hit - and Government recycling targets are now in sight.

Wyre Forest District Council said in the first four weeks nearly 150 tonnes of paper, textiles, plastic, cans and glass were collected from households included in the first phase of the scheme.

And it added more than 90 per cent of the 9,000 properties covered are sorting material for the weekly collections.

Commercial services portfolio holder Keith Robertson said: "The public has been brilliant in putting the right type of materials in the boxes and in their willingness to take part."

He added: "People are asking me at the moment why we can't take all types of plastic and card but the types of materials that we able to collect are dictated to us by what the reprocessors want.

"Hopefully as the infrastructure improves we will be able to expand the range of materials that we take."

Last year's domestic rubbish recycling rate of just eight per cent needs to be upped to 18 per cent in 2003 to start meeting tough Government targets - but the district council said it was now "well on its way" to achieving it.

Wyre Forest district councillors in Kidderminster's Offmore and Comberton ward are surveying several thousand homes to see what can be improved before the second phase is rolled out to a further 9,500 households next month.