A PIONEERING recycling scheme in Rossendale will get under way next month, when people will be encouraged to sift their household rubbish.

What makes the Valley scheme different, environmental services manager David Rigby told members of the development and environmental services committee, was that it was borough-wide and across all kinds of houses and different residents.

He said: "Unlike other authorities, we are not aiming to hit specific areas and have targeted people from all kinds of houses. We want everyone to get into the idea of recycling, not just to pick an area where it is possible people are more likely to recycle than others.

"Within 10 years everybody is going to have to recycle and maybe they may have to take it somewhere, but we want to be able to take it from their doorstep."

Jo Whitaker, regional director of Encams, formerly the Tidy Britain Group, said authorities often picked specific areas because they then knew they would reach targets set by government, but some authorities, like Rossendale, had introduced across-the-board recycling schemes.

She said: "The more people that are involved in the scheme, the more recycling and more waste minimisation the better."

Rossendale's scheme will start on September 23 when the first 6,500 homes in Shawforth, the Pennine Road area of Bacup, and parts of Waterfoot, Rawtenstall and Helmshore will receive tagged blue wheelie bins to collect recyclable waste. Collections will begin in early October.

By the end of October the second phase 6,500 tagged brown wheelie bins will be delivered to collect green waste with the collection starting in November.

The third phase will involve blue boxes and bags for glass, cans and paper collections distributed with collections beginning the month after.

Rossendale has 29,000 homes and with the first three phases some 19,500 properties will receive a kerbside collection. The remaining properties will continue to receive a kerbside paper collection.

The council's bid to the Lancashire Environment Fund was successful and, as a result, grants of £350,000 were secured for the next three years, with the total cost of the scheme coming to £875,000.

In addition the council has been awarded £103,000 from the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs to recycle green waste.

The scheme was welcomed by councillors and chairman Coun Nick Pilling said: "This is an important scheme and we must do what we can to encourage recycling and must bite the bullet and do what we can."

The council will be able to check how successful the recycling scheme is and it will be closely monitored.