THE job to trim the bins in North Yorkshire will mean talking rubbish every working day.

A new campaigns officer has been appointed to help reduce the 400,000 tonnes of waste that is produced in the county each year.

Julia Robertson will work with nine councils as part of a 20-year waste strategy programme to encourage refuse to be reduced, re-used and recycled.

Julia, who has worked on various environment and conservation projects in the past, said: "I will be aiming to run campaigns and promotions including a home compost bin scheme and Christmas campaign to encourage everyone to reduce the amount of waste that they produce.

"Talking rubbish comes naturally to me but the difference is that this talk really can make a difference to the environment - simply by local people working together for the future."

Funded for the next three years by the landfill agency Yorventure, she will be co-ordinating waste minimisation throughout the county from her base at Ryedale District Council.

Parallel to Julia's project, the district council may receive government funding to further improve recycling in their area.

They are bidding for £770,000 from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs, which will be used to set up new green schemes. Households in Ryedale could be offered provision so that glass, cans, paper and organic waste could be recycled.

The outcome of the bids will be announced in December. The council's commercial services manager Phil Long said: "There needs to be a big mind change with the general public to get an awareness of how important it is to recycle."