NORTH Somerset Council has employed people to pick up black bag rubbish, take it away and look through it.

NORTH Somerset Council has employed people to pick up black bag rubbish, take it away and look through it.

The unitary authority has taken on consultants Resource Futures to analyse household rubbish and see what it is made up of.

Over the next few months collectors will pick up waste from outside about 250 random homes across the district and take them away to see how much more could be recycled.

Two of the giant bins from civic amenities sites in Weston, Backwell and Portishead will also be picked up and taken away to an, as yet unspecified, location so it can be sorted and put into categories.

North Somerset Council's executive member for environment, Carl Francis-Pester, said: "The collectors will take the rubbish so we can establish what items go into the bags.

"The waste will be taken from outside people's houses but will then be taken away. It won't be tipped out on driveways.

"This will take place in the new year over a few weeks. The feedback will help us when we review the collection services we have before the waste contracts are renewed.

"At the end of the day it is not about people going though rubbish but minimising the risk to the council of paying more in landfill taxes."

The local authority has to cut the amount of biodegradable waste it sends to landfill sites by April 2010.

Councils nationwide have been told how much they can send for the next 13 years and from April 2009 they will be fined £150 for every tonne of biodegradable waste above that amount.

At the last count the unitary authority was recycling around 37 per cent of its rubbish.