AS residents continue to bemoan to Spectator about their confusion over what items they can recycle in their blue-lidded bins, Hambleton District Council has provided a way to overcome this.

The authority, which recently issued a plea to restrict bluelidded bin deposits to those that can be recycled, has given its support to a supermarket’s community initiative by donating three of its blue-lidded bins to serve as in-store collection points for three local charities.

Now shoppers can avoid confusion at home by placing items they have just bought straight into the bins sited the back of the checkouts at Tesco Northallerton.

While it appears perhaps a little strange that Britain’s largest supermarket chain, which posted a £162m pre-tax profit earlier this year, needs donations paid for by taxpayers to provide collection boxes, it remains a popular scheme with shoppers.

“We have listened to our customers,” said Heather Small, community champion for Tesco Northallerton.

“One of my roles as a community champion is to support local charities, groups and not-for-profit organisations to carry out various charity and fundraising activities within their store.

“We have picked the three most popular charities to support and are grateful to Hambleton for providing the bins.”

One of the bins will be used as a collection point for Hambleton Community Action collecting food for the Warm and Well in North Yorkshire Project in the winter and the local food bank in the summer months.

The other bins will be used for donations of items such as baby toys and books to the children’s in-patient unit at the Friarage Hospital and for the Jerry Green Dog Rescue service, based near Thirsk, to collect dog food.