HAMPSHIRE people's love affair with recycling shows no signs of abating but their willingness to chuck just about anything away is waning.

It seems my lucky find of the Japanese print may be increasingly rare.

The woman who founded one of Hampshire's biggest recycling companies says things have changed since she started in the early 1980s.

Christina Hopkins, the founder of Hopkins Recycling, which operates 15 centres in the county, said: "You wouldn't believe what people used to throw away - such as decent porcelain. People used to throw away old letters. I remember reading letters from prisoners of war. I used to think how could anyone throw this away?' "We don't seem to get a lot of good stuff these days, certainly few antiques. Anything we do see is cracked or chipped. I think you struck it lucky with the Shinoda print."

It seems TV coverage of antiques is alerting people to the value of old things.

Mrs Hopkins said the centres were not in the antiques business or maximising their sales of stuff. The aim is to recycle as much as possible.

"For example a concrete garden pot that would cost £40 new, we'd sell for £3-4.

"The idea is to turn it over so it does not end up in the bins and into landfill. You have to be sensible. Say someone has thrown a nice leather suite away that might cost £500 new. We would sell that for about £50. We are not there to make a huge amount and someone has gone away happy. We are there to run the centres as efficiently as possible and ensure stuff does not go to landfill."

The recycling message certainly seems to be sinking in.

Hampshire has topped the table for diverting domestic waste from landfill in the UK.

Last year Project Integra, the partnership of all the local authorities in Hampshire and the private waste contractor Veolia Environmental Services, successfully recovered energy from or recycled more than 81 per cent of its household waste.

Recycling bosses attribute that to a domestic recycling rate approaching 32 per cent and three modern energy recovery facilities which generate power from recycled waste for 40,000 homes.

Several authorities in Hampshire are continuing to improve their recycling towards 35 per cent. Leading the way in 2005-06 was Eastleigh with 34.7 per cent, followed by East Hampshire, 33.6 per cent.

Lagging behind was Fareham, 28.4, up from 22.1; Test Valley, 27.2, up from 19.2; New Forest, 26.4, up from 24.5; and Winchester, 20.2, up from 17.4.

The highest increase was Southampton, whose rate climbed from 16.1 per cent in 2004-05 to 25.7 in 2005-06.

Project Integra aims for 40 per cent in the medium term. Playing a crucial role will be the alternative bin collection, when recyclables are taken one week, non-recyclables the next. In parts of Winchester where a trial has been held, the recycling rate has soared from 18 to 40 per cent.