TEAMS of plucky researchers are getting to grips with household refuse in a pungent task that could improve recycling efforts.

They are picking through peelings and raking through the rubbish in a waste research project that is not for the faint-hearted.

The teams are working throughout North Yorkshire as part of a scheme to find out what is being thrown away by householders.

The research is being carried out by local authorities across the county in a scheme to identify what materials can be targeted for reduction, re-use, recycling and composting which will help to increase the councils' recycling performance.

The information will be used to help identify the best way of disposing of waste in the future and to reduce the growing amount of rubbish being buried in landfill sites.

Three teams of researchers are collecting rubbish bins from selected streets and hand sorting the rubbish at the Tancred Materials recycling facility near Richmond, operated by Yorwaste.

The rubbish is being sorted into about 80 categories including raw fruit and vegetables, shoes and disposable nappies.

The research team will also visit six of the household waste and recycling centres around the county to collect samples of the rubbish that is brought in by the householders.

The county council's executive member for environmental services, Peter Sowray, said: "This is the first time that this type of research has been carried out in North Yorkshire.

"If valuable materials are being discarded which could easily be turned into something useful then we need to know the quantities involved, so that we can target those materials and improve our recovery rates."

The county's head of waste management, Ian Fielding, said: "Reducing, recycling and composting not only make environmental sense, but are also the best ways of keeping future waste disposal costs to a minimum."