HOUSEHOLDS in Basingstoke that are environmentally unfriendly could be in line for a visit from ex-world champion Roger Black after he threw his weight behind a campaign to boost recycling.

Basingstoke and Deane has been selected as one of six pilot areas for a new scheme which will see recycling advisers carry out assessments of how much rubbish people are recycling.

As part of the recycling aspect of The Gazette's A Place To Be Proud Of campaign, we are encouraging readers to join in and make the borough shine in the new scheme.

The advisers will follow this up by visiting poorly-performing homes to talk through any issues.

And Mr Black - who raced to gold in the four-by-400-metre relay at the 1991 World Athletic Championship - will join them for some of the green doorstep challenges.

Speaking at the launch of the Recycle for Hampshire project in Winchester, he said: "I've done a few things I've had to think about over the years, but this one's a real no-brainer. I don't think anyone can argue against recycling."

The £1.6million scheme will be backed by an education programme due to be launched in September, and Mr Black believes it is vital to educate young people about the benefits of recycling.

He said: "Children are really who we need to be looking at with this, because it's easier for them to learn good recycling habits.

"I'd love it if we got to a point where kids are saying to their parents 'What are you doing? Don't throw that away'."

Steve Read, chief executive of Project Integra - the county-wide network of waste collection and disposal authorities - revealed facilities like the Chineham incinerator are the equal of anywhere in the world, but Hampshire still only recycles 27 per cent of its waste, compared with 50 per cent in parts of Europe.

He said: "What we have in Hampshire is a world-class system and you would think we would have world-class recycling performance, but that's not the case.

"One of the reasons we aren't meeting that target is because we are only collecting about 30 per cent of the material which could be recycled, so two thirds is going into landfill or being burned when we could do more interesting things with it."

Recycle for Hampshire will attempt to correct this by showing what happens to materials when they are collected - for example, 25 two-litre soft drink bottles generate enough material to make a fleece jumper.

First published: Friday, April 1, 2005