RECYCLING in Wiltshire will become easier from next month, as the county's collection depots open longer.

The decision has been taken to extend the opening hours as Wiltshire County Council says May is traditionally one of the busiest months for spring cleaning.

Andy Conn, Wiltshire County Council's waste services manager, said: "The household recycling centres are open for longer with late openings in mid week so people don't need to wait until the weekend to make a trip.

"There are some two dozen different items people can recycle at the HRCs and year on year we're seeing an increase in the amount of material they handle.

"We're pleased that people want to use this service and we're continually working with our contractor, Hills Waste Solutions, to improve these facilities.

"That's why we are putting in place improved signage at the sites so people have clear information about what they can recycle and where. It should speed up the time taken and ensure items can be processed quicker."

The household recycling centres run by Hills for Wiltshire County Council, which includes the facility at Purton and Lower Compton between Devizes and Chippenham, can take everything from car batteries to fluorescent light tubes.

There are also textile banks for old clothes rubble, timber and unused paints.

All the sites take chipboard and MDF and there are new collection bins for electrical and electronic items.

The Purton, Melksham, Lower Compton, Devizes, Everleigh and Stanton St Quintin and Trowbridge centres will all now stay open until 7pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays and 5pm on other evenings.

The bank holidays also mean some changes to kerbside black box collections.

For people living in North and West Wiltshire and Salisbury there will be no collection on May 5. Instead, waste will be collected on May 6.

Tuesday's collection will move to Wednesday, and so on, with Friday's collection moving to Saturday.

The service resumes as normal the following week.

But waste collections will remain the same in Kennet District Council's area which includes Marlborough and Devizes. See www.recycleforwiltshire.com.