PRIVATE landlords will be forced to boost their blue bin supplies after a council ruled that recycling rates had to rise.

Oxford City Council has amended its waste and recycling policy which means people living in flats and shared homes must recycle at least 50 per cent of their waste.

The policy has already been in place for council-owned flats for several months, and the authority said it has been a success.

City executive board member for cleaner greener Oxford John Tanner said this was “the next stage” of the scheme.

He said: “We found that in a lot of the flats we visited, the area for the rubbish bins would have three general waste bins and only one small bin for recycling.

“We were actually making it more difficult for people to recycle, but we changed that, and now at least 50 per cent of the bins in our flats are blue.

“This is the next stage, where the privately-owned flats should adopt the same policy.”

The cost of a new blue bin was not available last night.

Mr Tanner said: “It will involve the landlords having to spend some money on new bins, because we can’t afford to subsidise them.”

He said enforcement action, including fines, could be used to deal with landlords who ignore the policy, but he also tried to dispel the “myth” that students were bad at recycling.

He said: “At the end of the day, if people don’t play by the rules then we may take enforcement action.

“A lot of students are some of the best recyclers in the city, and there are some people who aren’t students who don’t recycle.”

Landlord Karim Easterbrook, who owns a student property in Woodbine Place, in the city centre, said the policy would backfire on homeowners because students would not follow the rules.

He said: “I cannot see that they are going to get students to recycle.

“The only people who are going to end up doing it will be the landlords, or they will fine us.”

A report to the city executive board, which last week approved the plans, said: “Once the policy change is agreed, a 12-month consultation and implementation process would be carried out.

“All interested parties will be approached before any enforcement of the policy change.

“This will allow the managing agents and landlords to budget for the moderate increase in costs.”