Thousands of householders in Wrexham have been urged to get behind a new recycling scheme.

Council bosses have voted in favour of the �200,000 pilot which will see a limited kerbside collection.

New wheelie bins could be introduced

New wheelie bins for garden rubbish and sacks for "dry recyclables" to include paper, card, plastics, cans and foil will be introduced.

Household rubbish is a major issue for local authorities across Britain with around 414 million tonnes of waste being produced in the UK every year.

More than 80,000 tonnes of the UK total comes from Wrexham - enough to fill every room in a family home within 12 months.

The scheme follows the draft publication of the Welsh Assembly's waste strategy.

Recycling and Composting

Councillors had hoped a �25m incinerator would help reduce the amount of waste in Wrexham.

But the plans will now be debated in the Welsh Assembly and could take months before a final decision is reached.

By 2003/2004 councils need to be recycling 15% of waste with a minimum of 5% composting.

Homes earmarked for the pilot scheme which will start in May will be from Chirk, Gresford, Garden Village, New Broughton, Offa, Sydallt, Gwersyllt and Summerhill.

These households represent just over 10% of the 55,000 households in the county.

In a report, director of environmental services, Philip Walton said: "Under the sack scheme, householders would be provided with coloured, but transparent plastic sacks in which to store their dry recyclables."

Advertising Campaign

They store up to 80 litres of recyclable material and one sack per household would be collected every week.

Under the garden waste scheme residents would be given an extra 140 litre wheelie bin which would be collected by a refuse lorry and taken to a site for composting.

Wrexham council also want to introduce 11 extra sites for people to drop off recyclable waste.

An advertising campaign will now be launched encouraging local residents to recycle.