OTHER European countries like Germany and a number of councils elsewhere in Britain have successfully shown people how to split up their household waste to minimise cost and maximise recycling.

Recycling is vital especially in a small, crowded country like ours where it doesn't take an expert to realise that we simply do not have the room to go on burying rubbish in the ground.

To push us in the right direction, the government introduced the Landfill Tax which imposes heavy per-tonne financial penalties on local authorities, or anyone else, who wants to bury rubbish in the ground.

It is scheduled to rise steeply from 2005 to force authorities to come up with other solutions for dealing with waste.

From March next year on two pilot rounds weekly all-waste collections will become fortnightly - but that doesn't mean you have to get two weeks' rubbish into a single bin.

Every house will get a second bin for biodegradable waste like food peelings and grass cuttings and a third container for dry, materials which can be recycled, like glass, textiles, paper and tins.

As some councillors have warned, the vital point of this change is the way it is introduced.

Rather than merely issuing orders, there needs to be a comprehensive programme showing the common sense of the scheme.

As Coun Andy Kay says, in Blackburn and Darwen an extra £1million will have to go on council tax "in no time at all" unless we mend our ways.

With the right education, time-honoured habits can be changed - just look at how responsible dog owners are about not leaving their animals' waste in streets and parks today compared with ten years ago.