HOSPICE fundraisers fear a council drive to recycle more rubbish could leave them short of cash.

The mountain of waste collected by the Butterwick Hospice at Bishop Auckland every year brings in up to £15,000 for patient care.

But organisers fear supporters will shun their award-winning scheme when Wear Valley District Council introduces a doorstep collection service later this year.

Hospice volunteer Bernard Harrison estimates recycling has contributed £70,000 over the past seven years.

He leads a team dealing in paper, aluminium cans, Christmas cards, Yellow Pages, cardboard and other rubbish which is either collected from skips and pick-up points or delivered to the hospice building in Woodhouse Lane. Businesses, schools and colleges around south Durham support the project.

Two years ago the fundraisers' efforts won The Northern Echo's Making A Difference environmental award.

Mr Harrison said: "We have a lot of regular supporters and we hope they will continue to help us.

"But if they can leave things out to be collected by the council they might find it easier to do that. We just hope that the council's efforts raise the profile of recycling and make more people take part."

Fundraiser Sylvia Stoneham added: "We have to raise £350,000 a year to run the hospice and we rely on the recycling money for regular income. It is nice because we are not asking them to dip into their pockets, just to give us rubbish that they are throwing away."

The council has teamed up with the Teesdale and Derwentside districts to launch a £700,000 recycling scheme giving each household a 55-litre box for glass, textiles, paper and cans.

Wear Valley recycled 4.38 per cent of its waste last year and needs to more than double that to meet a ten per cent target for 2003.

Ian Thompson, head of service contracts, said: "Our targets are set by the Government and we have to do our best to meet them.

"The last thing we want to do is take income from the hospice and we hope people will still support them.