A TEAM of doorsteppers will take to Teesside streets to ensure residents are fully aware of a major recycling drive.

Nearly 7,000 homes in Hartlepool have been chosen to take part in a six-month pilot scheme, designed to boost the number of people who recycle and help the town to meet Government targets.

The team has been set up by Hartlepool Borough Council to try to ensure that residents are ready for the launch of its new scheme on July 4.

Householders are being given brown wheelie bins for garden waste and white poly bags for plastic bottles and cardboard - in addition to their existing blue boxes and bags and green wheelie bins.

A new weekly collection regime is also being introduced, with green wheelie bins and blue boxes/bags being emptied one week, and brown bins and white poly bags the next.

It is hoped that the new scheme, which is likely to be extended to the whole of the town in the near future, will enable the council to continue meeting its stringent Government recycling targets.

The doorsteppers will be in the Fens, Greatham, Newton Bewley and parts of Owton Manor, Rift House and Rossmere areas.

Colin Ogden, the council's waste and recycling manager, said: "We have already publicised the scheme widely through leaflets and the media, and by staging a series of question and answer drop-in sessions at various venues.

"The team of doorsteppers, which begin work today, is another part of our campaign to try to ensure that residents know exactly what the new recycling scheme is all about."

For further information, call the recycling hotline on (01429) 523808.