Norwich City Council is to introduce so-called "quick win" recycling projects in a bid to meet tough new targets.

Norwich City Council is to introduce so-called "quick win" recycling projects in

a bid to meet tough new targets, it was revealed yesterday.

The city currently recycles and composts 15.8pc of household waste and the government has set a target of 20pc for March 2008 - but

this is just the start, according to the Labour-run council.

In a report to go before the executive on Wednesday, council officers have put forward three priorities that can be initiated quickly to set the ball rolling.

The "quick wins" are to recycle road sweepings, which could add 2pc to the council's performance, create a pilot garden waste collection service, which could add 0.5pc, and roll out city centre mini-recycling banks, for which no figures are available.

But city council leader Steve Morphew said: "The quick wins are just the start. Our aspiration is that by October we will be in a position to put further plans before the council. We want to have reached the 5pc we need next year, which puts us ahead of the government-set target, but by 2010 we want to have doubled our current rate to 30pc, and by 2012 we want to be in the top 10 cities for recycling in the country."

The mini-recycling banks would be for paper/card, glass and cans and placed at 10 locations in the city (one is already installed at Norwich bus station).

The vehicles used by a contractor collect about 1,700 tonnes of street waste every year which currently goes to landfill. Under the scheme this would be recycled locally.

Norwich is the only local authority in Norfolk not to offer an opt-in garden waste collection scheme to divert big quantities of compostable waste from the tip.

A voluntary prototype scheme is being suggested for the city wards of Eaton and Crome and could be rolled out by Easter 2007. It comes as provisional figures out yesterday show the target to recycle and compost 25pc of household waste in England by 2005/06 has been exceeded.

The results from the Department for the Environment Food and

Rural Affairs (defra) show households in England recycled 27pc of their waste during 2005/06, 4pc more than in the previous year.