RECYCLING bins decorated like black and white cows are helping to drive up Hackney's recycling rate.

The bins painted as cattle caught the imagination of people so well that 61 per cent more waste was recycled during a three month trial in another borough.

Clissold Councillor Karen Alcock went to see how popular the new cow bins are for herself on a tour of a recycling site in Hoxton ward - which is one of the first areas in Hackney to have the new bins.

Hoxton Councillors Philip Glanville, Carole Williams and Clayeon McKenzie showed Cllr Alcock around the site this week.

Cllr Alcock said: "I am delighted that these brand new cow bins seem to have caught the imagination of residents.

"They have been so successful in increasing the amount of rubbish that residents are recycling that Hackney council are ordering 200 more of them to use across the borough.

"I will be campaigning to get some in Clissold ward to help encourage residents to recycle as much as possible.

"I would be interested to hear from Hackney residents why they think that the cow designs have led to such an increase in the recycling rate compared to the ones we used before.”

During the trial in New Cross, the bins were placed on a stretch of pavement with a sign next to them saying “Feed the cows”.

The idea came from waste experts and designers who were asked to find ways to encourage people to recycle and help meet targets for reducing landfill.

Researchers also found that there were fewer incidents of the cow bins being victims of fly-posting and vandalism – which had been a problem in the past.

Cllr McKenzie said: “The researchers found that the bins were particularly popular with children.

“Hackney council have ordered two of the smaller “calf bins” for every primary and secondary school in the borough enabling them to recycle paper, newspaper, magazines, tins and plastic bottles.

“If we can get the message across to Hackney kids that recycling is important then it will help the borough to recycle more in the future.”

Currently Hackney has two recycling bring sites where the old standard bins were removed and replaced with the cow pattern version – in

These sites were chosen as they have space to accommodate the bins, are in busy locations and have historically have had problems with vandalism such as fly posting, dumping, arson and graffiti of the bins. Further sites will be found in April.

The council have put together an activity book for pupils to accompany the arrival of the bins at schools in May.

In addition to calf bins for schools Hackney have ordered some of the bins for parks and green spaces in the borough.

This will enable park users to recycle tins, cans and plastic bottle and mixed glass bottles and jars.