Families who live in flats around Norwich finally look set to be able to join the recycling revolution, after city council bosses agreed to spend �1m to provide the final set of communal recycling bins.

And City Hall is also set to spend a further �60,000 on two waste and recycling officers whose remit is to persuade more people to recycle - in a bid to increase Norwich City Council's recycling rate to 55pc.

The city council introduced fortnightly collections - with families asked to put recyclable materials such as cardboard, some plastic, tins and paper in blue bins - in 2008.

But some flats still have not got such bins and waste collectors have to go into blocks and pick up black bin bags, which means in some areas of the city as few as one in 10 households are recycling,

The council has agreed to make �1m available to continue and complete the communal bin programme, which will mean families take their refuse and recycling to communal bins to be collected.

A council spokeswoman said: 'We have just completed West Pottergate and are about to put communal bins in Watson Grove and Dolphin Grove over the next few weeks.

'Communal bins bring accessible recycling facilities to more of our residents and builds on our successes to date including the introduction of kerbside collections for recycling food waste, paper, plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles and a subscription service for garden waste.' The council currently recycles 41pc of waste and every tonne of recycled material nets it �50 in recycling credit income from the county council. Food waste gets a premium rate payment of �72 per tonne.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, councillors will also be asked to agree to appoint the new officers, whose job will be to get more people participating in recycling.

Part of their job will be to knock on people's doors to encourage them to recycle and to explain what should go in which box.