TEAMS of researchers are getting to grips with household refuse in a bid to improve the county's recycling efforts.

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

The waste research is being carried out by various authorities across the county in a bid to identify which materials can be targeted for reduction, re-use, recycling and composting to help to increase the councils' recycling performance and meet Government targets.

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

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

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

The research teams will also visit six household waste and recycling centres in the county to collect a variety of samples of the rubbish dumped by householders.

The county council's executive member for environmental services Peter Sowray said: "This is the first time 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 recycling recovery rates."

The county council'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."