By Ted JeoryFORMER Newsround presenter and rural affairs campaigner John Craven has launched a new recycling scheme in Essex.Under the Chelmsford Borough Council's “Watch Your Waste Line” banner, the kerbside recycling scheme enables 18,000 households across villages and rural areas of the borough to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

By Ted Jeory

FORMER Newsround presenter and rural affairs campaigner John Craven has launched a new recycling scheme in Essex.

Under the Chelmsford Borough Council's “Watch Your Waste Line” banner, the kerbside recycling scheme enables 18,000 households across villages and rural areas of the borough to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

The council is one of only a handful in the UK to offer this type of service to rural areas and, with the help of a Government grant, it has bought four new vehicles and employed nine new staff to cope with the expected surge in recycled material.

Householders in all Chelmsford's rural areas have now been given a brown wheelie bin, a white bag for cardboard, a green box for cans and glass and a white bag for paper. This will help to ensure their household waste can be easily separated.

Launching the scheme yesterday, Mr Craven, the BBC's Countryfile presenter, said: “I have seen the devastation on the countryside caused by the careless disposal of rubbish.

“Recycling is vital in rural areas if we are going to stem the tide of rubbish going to landfill, doing untold damage to the environment.

“I'm really pleased to launch this scheme which will help everyone in Chelmsford recycle more and reduce the amount of environmentally-damaging rubbish.”

ted.jeory@eadt.co.uk