The campaign hopes to show how easy recycling is

From April, Cornwall County Council will be charged a �150 a tonne under government waste limits. The county is expected to be 15,000 tonnes over.

It has to meet governmental targets to deal with biodegradable waste.

A roadshow is touring the county urging people to carry out more recycling and composting to address the problem.

We've now got to divert more biodegradable waste from landfill David Owens, Cornwall County Council

The United Downs tip near Redruth is 15m (49ft) deep and has a volume of 250,000 cubic metres (8.8m cubic ft) - the equivalent of 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The roadshow is part of an attempt being made to get more people in Cornwall to recycle before the county council has to pay more for exceeding the new landfill targets.

The council's waste management officer, David Owens, said the council was facing having to pay the �2.25m to pay for government-required permits to put the current excess biodegradable waste into landfill.

He said: "The government has new targets from Europe for biodegradables, that includes green waste, kitchen waste and paper.

"It has got to stop going to landfill at three set years over the next 15, in 2010, 2013 and 2020.

Waste alternatives

"But the government has decided to introduce a 'build-up' to those target years from now, so we've now got to divert more biodegradable waste from landfill.

"That's why we need to drive up recycling."

Christine Smith from the Cornwall Paper Company, said more people needed to start taking responsibility for their waste.

She said: "Instead of seeing it as a problem, we like to see recyclable materials as a resource and we want people to take that step to see that it's their responsibility and they need to think about alternatives available to them."

The county council is currently considering three bids for a �500m contract to collect and dispose of the county's rubbish.