PEOPLE in Pendle will be asked their views on how best to recycle more of their household waste as the council considers its strategy on meeting new Government targets for recycling.

A major consultation exercise will be carried out in the coming months.

The Government wants local authorities to increase the amount of household waste that is recycled or composted by at least a quarter by 2005 and at least one third by 2015. In the meantime Pendle has set itself its own target to increase recycling from between ten and 12 per cent as it is now to 17 per cent in the next three years.

Recycling has been boosted over the last 12 months by the introduction of a door-to-door waste paper and cans collection from 2,000 homes covered by the REAP recycling scheme in Reedley and Earby. An increase in the number of recycling sites from nine to 25 also helped Pendle beat the national average for recycling of nine per cent.

But extending the REAP scheme to the whole borough would cost council tax payers up to £1 million a year. The council is looking at other ways of meeting the targets. One option is to buy a fleet of split-body refuse wagons which could collect paper, normal waste and cans on the same collection round but store them separately. The problem is the wagons would be too big to fit down many narrow back streets. "The issue is whether to expand the REAP scheme with the added costs of multiple back-door collections or consider a front door or kerbside collection scheme," said services chairman Coun Frank Clifford.