HOUSEHOLDERS and businesses in North Yorkshire are being urged to step up their recycling efforts after it was announced that landfill tax is to double in the next five years.

North Yorkshire waste management company Yorwaste is encouraging people to look at ways they can reduce the amount of rubbish they produce in a bid to minimise the impact of the rise.

The tax is currently £13 a tonne and is due to go up to £14 in April, but Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in his Pre-Budget Report that it would rise by £3 per tonne each year from 2005.

Yorwaste has already reduced the amount of waste that goes to landfill sites in the county through a number of household recycling schemes, but they are encouraging residents and businesses to do more.

The company is operating kerbside collections of newspapers, cans, bottles and tins, which are sent for recycling.

Yorwaste managing director, Steve Grieve, said: "Even though we have made progress in North Yorkshire and York over the last two years, much more is needed over the next few years to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

"Householders and businesses need to recycle more waste, such as paper, cans, bottles, as well as wood, cardboard and plastic. Waste should be used as a resource."