A CAMPAIGN has been launched to urge people to make composting their new year resolution.

North Yorkshire County Council has joined Recycle Now and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) to boost the recycling of kitchen and garden rubbish in 2007.

Instead of pledging to give up chocolate or go to the gym, organisers want people to divert organic waste from landfill to composting heaps and bins.

To help, the scheme offers the county's residents cheap compost bins.

Kitchen scraps such as peelings, eggshells and used tea bags create methane, a greenhouse gas, when taken to landfill tips in black plastic bags.

If they are composted, they provide a nutrient-rich soil conditioner for gardens and plant containers instead of being wasted.

Other items that can be composted include dead flowers, grass cuttings, pet hair, coffee granules, toilet roll centres, the contents of the vacuum cleaner and shredded paper.

Details of home composting, including discounted bins, are available at www. recylenow.com/home_composting, or by calling 0845 077 0757.

Wrap is a non-profit company formed in 2000 and backed with funding from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

It works with a number of councils and the retail, construction and manufacturing industries to encourage recycling.