IN the letter from D Wardell (May 21) a number of questions were directly put to me that I should like to address.

How much does it cost the council to buy the green plastic boxes for recycling? The answer is £2.04 a box.

As for the cost of new vehicles, we are using the existing vehicles for the twin bin system, but will be able to hire an extra recycling vehicle if needed because of increased participation in the green box scheme.

If people already compost all their green waste, then they do not need to have an additional green bin.

The writer asks, "When did York put in place a recycling plant?".

We don't have a recycling plant, we utilise the Yorwaste facility at Hessay for baling paper, and sorting and storing tins, cans, glass bottles and jars for collection by the recycling companies. There is a composting facility at Harewood Whin, Rufforth, also owned by Yorwaste which is where the 4,000 tonnes of garden waste is turned into compost.

It is a commonly thought the council is making vast profits from recycling, however this is simply not the case. What we are doing is reducing the cost to the council tax payer compared with the "do nothing" position.

Each family in York produces more than a tonne of rubbish every year. If we did not recycle anything it would cost us more than £70 a tonne to collect and landfill the rubbish. As for who benefits from the sale of recycled materials, the citizens of York gain from the price that the waste handling company Yorwaste gets from the sale of recycled material. Because City of York, and North Yorkshire Councils own Yorwaste, we share any profits, which come back to council coffers.

Coun Andrew Waller,

Deputy leader, City of York Council, Askham Lane, York.

Updated: 09:43 Tuesday, May 31, 2005