A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed that, during the first fortnight of green bin emptying in the city, nearly 2000 tonnes of garden waste was collected by the York Council.

The collections during the last two weeks in May were the first since last November. Crews sometimes struggled to deal with the accumulated volumes

The figures also reveal that the overall volume of waste produced in the City was fairly stable.

Typically around 330 tonnes is being presented for recycling each week

After the usual post Christmas peak, residual (grey bin) volumes have also been stable at around 890 tonnes a week.

59% of the waste produced in the City is now either recycled or composted. The comparable figure for the first quarter (April – June) of last year was 56%.