A GROUP of local councils has joined together to produce a comprehensive joint waste management strategy for the area.

This is the first waste management strategy that the unitary authorities, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton Borough Councils, have produced and it includes a revised recycling plan. This will supercede the existing recycling plans written in 1992.

The joint strategy sets out how the authorities will implement the requirements of the government's waste strategy 2000 plan, the first national strategy of its kind.

As part of the plan, the authorities have to achieve recycling targets, set by the government, of ten per cent recycling by 2003-04, 18 per cent by 2005-06 with higher targets after that.

This means the councils will need to more than double the amount of waste they recycle in the next two years and more than triple it within four.

The document also looks at how to minimise waste, reduce landfilling, cut pollution and make waste facilities more widely available and accessible to the public.

Andrew Craig, waste management development officer for the four councils, said: "We want to know what the community thinks about the new strategy.

"The average home produces about one tonne of rubbish a year, so this affects everyone."

Information leaflets are available by contacting council offices around the four boroughs and residents are invited to comment on the strategy.