Ten Hertfordshire councils are aiming to generate an extra £560,000 in revenue each year by jointly sending all their plastic, cans, glass and Tetra Pak cartons to two recycling firms.

The 10 council consortium aims to generate greater returns for recyclable material collected in Hertfordshire

The councils have signed two contracts, which commence on February 1 2010 and run for an initial period of two years, which will see them send recovered glass to Leeds-based recycling firm Berrymans and cartons, cans and plastic to Pearce Recycling in St Albans.

The contracts apply to material collected at the kerbside as well as that from bring banks and have the option to be extended for a further year.

The councils claim that consortium working will allow them greater overall benefit from the sale of their materials and follows a similar county-wide arrangement undertaken in April 2009 which saw the 10 councils combine to send newspaper to Shropshire-based Newport Paper.

Welwyn Hatfield district council acted as lead council on the deal and the local authority expects to generate £30,000-a-year for itself under the contracts.

Councillor Colin Couch, executive member for environment at Welwyn Hatfield, said: "This agreement benefits our residents and we're working with local businesses, our agreement for paper is very similar and Hertfordshire is able to supply paper of very high quality to be recycled in Europe.

"This has proved to be a very successful business arrangement and I hope for the same for this."

The signing of the contracts comes after Welwyn Hatfield extended its recycling service in October 2009 to include cardboard and food waste.

Cllr Couch added: "This is an exciting initiative to be the lead authority on, as we have extended our own recycling service this year and continue to look at recycling as much as we can."

Represented in the 10 council consortium are: Welwyn Hatfield; Three Rivers district council; Watford borough council; Hertsmere borough council; the borough of Broxbourne council; East Hertfordshire district council; Stevenage borough council; North Hertfordshire district council; St Albans city and district council; and, Dacorum borough council.