MORE than 260,000 visitors used a rubbish tip to dispose of 24,000 tonnes of waste last year, latest figures reveal.

The household waste recycling centre, at Haverton Hill, north of Middlesbrough, could now be used to deal with different kinds of waste.

The site is used to recycle household waste that cannot be taken in the general collection or via the kerbside recycling scheme.

The site was recently expanded to take other waste, including wood, green waste, cardboard, metals, fridges, freezers, electrical goods, glass, cans, paper, plastic bottles, batteries and fluorescent tubes.

Soon it will be able to take information technology equipment.

Stockton Borough Council, which owns the recycling site, has been awarded money from the Government to look at how more items can be recycled.

The council is working with a number of community recycling and voluntary organisations on the review which could mean that furniture, bicycles and working electrical goods could be recycled at the site.

More than £1.7m is being provided by the European Union to be spent in the area and on other recycling programmes across the borough of Stockton during the next three years.