South Essex Euro MP Richard Howitt has joined forces with Rayleigh residents, schoolchildren and environmentalists to urge people to follow Europe's example and recycle.

He said: "The level of recycling envisaged in the Essex Waste Plan is woefully inadequate.

"The Netherlands and Austria already achieve more than 40 per cent recycling with individual states like Flanders in Belgium and Lower Saxony in Germany, which are equivalent to Essex, topping 50 per cent.

"This makes the Essex target of 25 per cent by 2005 look pitiful in comparison.

"Having successfully campaigned for new European laws to restrict landfill and bearing in mind the Government's consultation paper says re-use and recycling should be considered before implementing major disposal sites, I believe recycling could remove the need for some or all of the proposed eight landfill or incineration sites.

"With just a few months to go until the public inquiry into these plans takes place we are simply wasting resources and we are wasting time."

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