A questionnaire was sent out to 2,700 members of the council's citizens' panel – a cross-section representation of the Cumbrian public – last week, and will also be made available online.
The county council said it was seeking their residents' views to help develop a “co-ordinated approach towards recycling and minimising waste” with the districts.
Councillor Colin Nineham, chair of the council's environmental quality and safety panel, said: “This survey will map what is actually happening and what people think should happen in the future about recycling.”
Data from the survey, which closes in May, will be used by a council scrutiny panel to produce an evidence-based report, the council said. This will then move forward towards the formation of the joint recycling strategy.
Mr Nineham explained: “The strategy should have a number of benefits for the county, both environmental and economic. They include raising public awareness of recycling in Cumbria, reducing pressures on landfill sites, shaping a greener environment for future generations and creating extra jobs for local people in recycling work and businesses.”
The councils are also gathering industry views and those from other councils including Lancashire to help form the recycling strategy.
Encouraging
Council officers in Cumbria believe that action by the districts to reach current recycling targets “looks encouraging”, but have suggested that “being proactive means looking beyond recycling rates, however important this may be”.
Cumbria recycled or composted almost 13% of its household waste in 2002/03, and expects to meet its 2005/06 target of 21% as the districts' kerbside schemes are expended.
At the moment, 30% of properties in the county are offered green waste collections, while 58% of properties are offered kerbside collections of dry recyclables.
Work on the new recycling strategy follows the approval of a joint waste management strategy in May 2003, which saw the public choosing a recycling and composting option rather than the use of incineration to divert waste from landfill.
Since the approval of the strategy, Cumbria county council has agreed to invited expressions of interest for a waste management contract. This could see a new private sector partner in place in 2005/06, and could also involve the sale of the county's Local Authority Waste Disposal Company, Cumbria Waste Management.
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