Bradford Council has hit its recycling target for the year 2004/05 but looks set to miss this year's by more than 11,000 tonnes.

The authority recycled between 17 and 18 per cent of the district's rubbish last year - around 36,000 tonnes.

So expectations have been raised by the Government which now wants Bradford to recycle more than a quarter of all its waste - an extra 22,000 tonnes this year.

But a Council report has found the authority's plans aren't up to the task.

Although the paper, glass and can recycling programme is to be expanded to 140,000 households and a green waste scheme is to be trialled, neither will be fully in place by the target date of April next year.

The Council's own experts say it will result in an 11,000 tonne shortfall against their Government targets and admit that options for dealing with the problem are still being investigated.

In a report to go before the environment and waste management improvement committee tomorrow they say of the 25 per cent recycling target: "It is unlikely that it can be achieved in a single year."

Nevertheless Council experts have made the collection of green waste their highest priority for this year and intend to go ahead with a two-month trial across 28,000 properties beginning within a few weeks.

Homes in the trial will be issued with disposable paper sacks and asked to fill them with rubbish such as garden waste. If it is successful, the scheme will be rolled out across 100,000 properties and the bags could be replaced by bins which would hold more waste and are seen as a better long-term solution.

Meanwhile, the 140,000 homes currently getting a Council paper collection will be upgraded to a glass, tin and paper collection.

A promotional scheme to encourage more use of recycling bins, and the employment of more staff at household waste sites to encourage the sorting of rubbish by people who drop it off themselves are also planned.

Councillor Ghanzanfer Khaliq, who will chair the committee, said the possibility of not meeting next year's targets was a "serious concern".

He said: "This will be one of the issues we will be looking at. We are quite concerned that the authority will not meet its targets. We need to look at the options and see if the Council's responses are ones that will deliver."

The Council's executive member for the environment, Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, added: "The shortfall has been anticipated and all options are being looked at to resolve it."