YORK waste bosses exceeded their landfill targets by 1,100 tonnes in the first five months of this year, a council report has revealed.

A City of York Council commercial services report showed the authority had not made its target, but hoped its new green waste collections would help to tip the balance.

The council will soon be fined for each tonne sent to landfill sites above a target set by the Government.

The missed target was revealed as council chiefs celebrated diverting more than 1,000 tonnes of green waste from landfill in the first three weeks of its new alternate waste collection scheme.

Coun Andrew Waller, the council's environment chief, said: "I would like to thank York residents for the positive way that they have responded to the new system.

"More than 1,000 tonnes of garden waste put in to the green bins will be turned to compost. This will reduce the landfill tax on York residents and help the city meet its targets and avoid fines this year.

"The amount of green waste collected is even more than we anticipated, and it shows that people are interested in making York more sustainable.

"There have been teething problems, and I apologise to those households who have been affected by this. Officers have worked hard to correct this and we should now be back on track for all residents.

"The extra 40 tonnes per week of cans, bottles and paper collected since the new arrangements began are an added bonus and demonstrate what progress can be made when the city pulls together.

"Over 2,000 new green boxes have been distributed in the last four weeks to people who had lost or mislaid them."

Disquiet over the new system remains, however, among many city residents - who are still flocking to sign up to the Evening Press Bin It! campaign.

More than 6,200 people have signed our internet and newspaper petition, and it's still not too late to sign up and call for the retention of weekly household waste collections for 60,000 York homes.

Updated: 09:47 Saturday, October 29, 2005