PEOPLE are being encouraged to "reduce, re-use and recycle" over the festive season with a "Don't Indulge Your Dustbin" poster campaign featuring the Waste Awareness Mole.

Posters in supermarkets and other public places throughout the county are urging people to be more waste conscious.

The mole advises turning Lancashire's waste mountain into a molehill by recycling glass, aluminium cans, Christmas trees, cards and wrapping paper, and by composting food leftovers.

As well as the yuletide initiative, Lancashire County Council works with the district and unitary authorities all year round to encourage people to visit recycling facilities and start composting food waste.

Last year, the council's waste centres handled 44,000 tonnes of hardcore, 13,000 tonnes of glass, paper, and textiles and 22,000 tonnes of garden waste.

In addition, almost 30,000 tonnes of waste was sent for recycling in Lancashire by district councils and voluntary groups who received £563,000 from the County Council for saving materials from going to landfill sites.

County Councillor Richard Toon, chairman of Lancashire's municipal waste management strategy members steering group, said: "Christmas presents us with the ideal opportunity to look at the waste we produce and how we can increase our efforts to recycle.

"A great deal of our waste, such as glass, paper and cans can be separated from other rubbish and taken to recycling banks.

"The figures for waste going to county waste centres are encouraging, but we still only recycle a small proportion of our household waste. We all still need to increase our efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle."

For more help and advice on recycling contact the County Council recycling officer on 01772 264432 or the local district council recycling officer.

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