REDDITCH Council is to study residents' recycling behaviour and increase the amount of waste recycled each year through a pilot scheme called Don't Bin it to Win it!

The town needs to hit a Government target of recycling 18 per cent of all waste by March 2006.

Although 16 per cent of waste is currently recycled, the council is working to improve on this and is introducing the scheme to encourage more people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Since November 7, households in pre-selected areas of Redditch have started to receive a monthly postcard promoting recycling.

Residents receiving these special cards should put them in the top of their paper recycling box along with all their waste paper ready for their normal recycling collection.

This postcard enters them into a prize draw where they will have the chance of winning a cash prize.

The council and Worcestershire County Council made a successful bid to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to fund the project, to test whether the use of an incentive can encourage more people to in recycle.

Following the pilot scheme, data will be collected and submitted to Defra for inclusion in a national results report.

The initiative complements the ongoing TARGET 75 project running nationwide to study various methods and initiatives to encourage recycling, such as providing one-to-one advice on the doorstep.

The council has also launched a boroughwide scheme to encourage residents to recycle more cardboard, which started on November 1 called (Think your card is) too thick to recycle?'

For more information visit www.redditchbc.gov.uk/recycling or call the recycling hotline on 534190.