AN environmental campaigner is launching a “resource rescue mission” to help improve rubbish recycling at North Yorkshire agricultural shows.

Helmsley Town councillor Erica Rose, a member of Kirkbymoorside Environmental Group, hopes to reduce the numbers of recyclable cans, glass and plastic bottles that go to landfill with the rubbish left after the events.

She said show organisers who had tried to provide separate bins for recyclables had found the they had to send the rubbish to landfill as people put other kinds of waste into them.

Organisers of rural shows say recycling leftover rubbish is an issue they have spent years struggling with.

Cllr Rose is inviting people to join her in retrieving large recyclable bottles and cans from the rubbish.

She said: “It is easy to do, and every 12 cans, 189 plastic bottles or 260 carrier bags recycled save as much carbon as you get from ten miles of driving the average car.

“Aluminium is the easiest win in carbon-offset terms, and it is also extremely environmentally destructive in terms of mining and manufacture.”

To help Cllr Rose after Ryedale Show tomorrow, call 07791-539552.