THE amount of waste recycled in England's biggest county is set to double over the next decade.

Further recycling and composting schemes are to be introduced all over North Yorkshire by the council-owned waste management firm Yorwaste.

Its targets include increasing the number of properties taking part in kerbside collections of recyclable materials to 300,000 - or 90 per cent of all homes - by 2005.

The company is also striving to meet tough Government targets by continuing to develop technology which will divert waste from landfill sites.

Yorwaste was founded ten years ago as a result of the Environmental Protection Act, which required county councils to give up responsibility for waste disposal.

The company is now owned by North Yorkshire County Council, which has a 77 per cent share, and the City of York Council, but it is privately managed and run.

Over the past ten years the company has handled more than six million tonnes of waste and in the past three years alone has composted 50,000 tonnes of green waste.

It has also been involved in the development of kerbside collection of recyclable material from 75,000 homes in York, Harrogate, Northallerton and Thirsk.

But managing director Steve Grieve said the company was facing greater challenges as it entered its second decade, particularly in relation to delivering a more sustainable way of dealing with waste.

At present, recycling is two to three times more expensive than disposing of waste in landfill, but substantial rises in landfill tax over the next five years will make it even more important to find alternative cost-effective waste management methods.

"Our strategy is based on an integrated approach to environmental management involving waste minimisation techniques, recycling and segregation of materials, securing robust markets and recovering value from what is left," said Mr Grieve.

"And because the company is effectively owned by the residents of North Yorkshire and city of York, they can be assured that any profits Yorwaste has made in the last ten years and in the years to come have been, and will be, ploughed back into the local area."