SMALL changes and street -specific recycling campaigns targeted at small areas could help the city council save as much as £100,000 by cutting landfill costs, a council report claims.

A taskgroup of councillors have recently finished a review of domestic rubbish recycling in the city and are due to finalise their report at a meeting next week.

After trial projects across the city, the report shows each household in the area recycled an average of 6.9 percent more, which if replicated across the city could cut the amount of waste going into landfill significantly, save £100,000 in disposal costs, and send another 1,000 tonnes of rubbish recycling plants.

The report shows that local campaigns targeted at specific streets are more effective in encouraging people to recycle that city-wide messages, and recommends that as the best approach for future projects.

The papers also show that while plenty of voluntary and community groups are involved in recycling and green initiatives - like Clifton's St Joseph's Church where there is an "eco congregation" project - but the council staff have at times lacked the resources to make the most of their enthusiasm.

Over the two year long scrutiny project, two area of York and their respective recycling rates were monitored.

While education projects and marketing campaigns were aimed at 629 houses around Kingsway North, a control group was set up around 604 homes around Monkton Road.

Recycling rates were monitored at the start of the project, and through the work, to find out how effective the council's projects are at boosting recycling rates, and keeping levels up after education drives have ended.

After the projects - which involved a campaign to get people registering for the mail preference service to cut down the amount of junk mail, and inter-street competitions to increase kerbside recycling - people in the Kingsway North test area recycled a total of 6.18 percent more, while those in the control area were hit by changes to collection times and recycled 6.08 percent less.

Follow up monitoring, due to take place over the next few months, will show if the results can be maintained in the long term.