SEVEN thousand residents are being quizzed on their views on recycling.

The Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire is carrying out a countywide telephone survey to discover the importance of recycling to people, how often they do it, and what they think of the facilities.

The next step will be a major doorstep campaign between August and October and will involve face-to-face interviews with residents to help them recycle more things, more often.

Bill Lidgate, vice chairman of the waste committee, said: "Buckinghamshire residents curren- tly recycle and compost over 40 per cent of their household waste.

"This is an encouraging figure, however more needs to be done, as there is still a lot of recyclable material ending up at landfill sites."

The telephone survey will help to monitor and compare changes in attitudes and behaviour prior to and after the doorstep campaign.

"Recycling is a challenge for all residents and we'd like to encourage those who don't recycle to start thinking about it, and those who already recycle to do more.

"This is an opportunity for residents to let us know what they think about their recycling services and what could be improved."

The telephone surveys start in the Chiltern district area next week, followed by Wycombe, South Bucks and Aylesbury and will last for seven weeks.