Reigate and Banstead Borough Council has been awarded £30,000 to help expand its recycling service for businesses.

The funding, from Business Resource Efficiency & Waste (BREW) Centre for Local Authorities, has been used to purchase more recycling bins to meet the growing demand for the new service and to promote the scheme to encourage more businesses to sign up to recycle their paper and card.

Councillor Julian Ellacott, the council’s environment spokesman, said: “The business recycling service has proved very popular since it launched last summer, with new businesses signing up all the time.

“This funding provides a welcome boost which will enable us to expand the capacity of the service.

“By recycling their paper and cardboard waste businesses can significantly reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill and potentially save money on their overall waste disposal costs.

“The advantage of the service is that it costs 20 per cent less than the Council’s normal business waste collection service - it really does cost less to recycle than to just throw things away."

“We intend to extend the service to collect other recyclable materials in the near future.”

More information and an application form to sign up to the scheme are available at reigate-banstead.gov.uk.