RESIDENTS are being urged to say how they think the region's rubbish should be dealt with for the next 20 years.

Questionnaires will be sent to people in Bury and across Greater Manchester in a huge drive to reduce waste.

The campaign is run by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, which is striving to meet tough new recycling targets.

All completed questionnaires will be entered into a prize draw to win a wind-up radio, home composter, or a fleece-like jacket made from recycled plastic bottles.

Bury generates 105,409 tonnes of rubbish each year, enough to build another 3,280 Peel Towers. Greater Manchester produces more rubbish than the national average, about 1.4 million tonnes a year, and that figure is increasing annually.

More than 50 per cent of household rubbish is recyclable, but only seven per cent is recycled. Nearly 90 per cent of this rubbish is dumped in landfill sites, which damages the environment and costs council tax payers almost £33 per person. The Government wants recycling rates to rise to ten per cent by next year, and to 18 per cent by 2006.

The GMWDA is spending £7 million on new household recycling services by next March, but bosses want to put a long-term strategy for reducing waste into place.

The proposals include: more doorstep recycling and home composting, and a Rethink Rubbish awareness campaign. There are plans to build treatment plants for non-recyclable waste and incinerators to generate energy from rubbish.

More controversially, bosses are also considering whether to introduce a Pay As You Throw scheme by 2012, charging or rewarding households depending on how much rubbish they recycle.

In Bury, new mini-recycling sites are being set up, and an extended kerbside collection scheme will be piloted at 28,000 households, who will be given containers in which to put glass, paper, garden waste, cans and textiles.

Councillor Stella Smith, executive member for environment and transport, said: "We need to change people's perception of rubbish, from waste that is dumped in the ground to a resource which can be re-used and recycled. Hopefully this strategy will go some way towards achieving that and I encourage everyone to have their say."

For more information, visit www.rethinkrubbish.com/greatermanchester or call Bury Council on 253 5353.