STAFF at Magna Housing Association have been bitten by the recycling bug – and they’re getting greener by the day.

The Dorchester-based organisation has installed nine recycling points in its yard to ensure that more waste than ever is given a new lease of life.

Stores supervisor John Palmer said: “Last year we recycled 67 per cent of our waste. This year, we hope to get in the top 90s.”

Magna, which owns more than 6,000 properties across Dorset, Somerset and Devon, is a step ahead of impending Enviro-nment Agency legislation which over the next two years will call on all businesses to segregate waste at source.

John said: “We have been looking at how we can reduce waste and recycle as much as possible. We have only a limited amount of space in our yard so we needed to find the most practical solution.

“For some time now, I’ve been going on about ‘seven bins for seven sins’ which is basically getting seven different skips for different types of waste.

“That’s what we’ve set out to do but we’ve actually gone one better than that – we have nine.”

Magna now has skips for timber, plasterboard, green waste, asbestos, inert waste such as soil and rubble, electrical, general waste, metal and a skip for everything else which is a skip company segregates.

The skips are monitored by CCTV cameras, which means less room for error.

John said: “In 2009 we replaced the general waste skip and installed a waste compactor. Compacted waste is charged by weight rather than individual skip which is more cost effective but it was never segregated.

“Now, that’s all changed. The inspector from the Environment Agency who visited us recently was very impressed and it’s a scheme we could replicate throughout the group.

“It’s about doing our bit for the environment and saving money for the business at the same time because the skip companies don’t charge us as much if the waste in the skips is properly segregated.

“Basically, it’s an extension of what we do at home. The trade operatives’ job doesn’t finish when they do a repair at one of our properties. They have to think about bringing the waste back and disposing of it in the proper manner.”

Magna is already putting empty paint tins to good use through the Dulux can recycling service, which turns them in to garden furniture, play equipment and tools.