Single person households should be creating almost no non-recyclable waste each week according to one Penryn councillor.

Mary May explained to Penryn Town Council on Monday night that planned changes to waste collection in the county were aimed at making it easier to recycle and hitting a target of less than 50 per cent of rubbish going to landfill.

She said: "Most people who live on their own hardly get any household waste if they are recycling correctly."

Cornwall Council is planning to change collections so that recycling is picked up once a week and regular rubbish once a fortnight, and Mrs May said there would be a "separate container for smelly [food] waste," to be taken once a week as well.

She added that the rationale was to "encourage people to recycle more," as "recycling is bulkier than household waste, or should be."

The council is aiming to increase the rates of recycling from 35 per cent to hit its 50 per cent target, and recently announced that residents across the county can now recycle the majority of plastics as pots, tubs and trays have now been added to their collections.

For more information on recycling go to cornwall.gov.uk/recycling