South Gloucestershire residents are to be consulted on how the region's recycling rates can be improved.

A 14-week formal public consultation was approved at a South Gloucestershire Council cabinet meeting on Monday.

The results of the consultation will help to structure the council's waste strategy for 2020-2025.

Through the consultation, proposals outline international targets for reducing waste to landfill, including recycling 65 percent of waste by 2035 and 70 percent of packaging by 2030, as well as reducing landfill to a maximum of 10 percent of waste by 2035.

Current recycling rates are just under 60 per cent, with the projected recycling rate for 2018-2019 being 58.3 per cent.

Cllr Rachael Hunt, cabinet member for communities, said: “The success in recent years to increase recycling across South Gloucestershire to record levels and adopt a more environmentally responsible attitude is very much down to the receptiveness of the public and I want to thank residents for supporting our work to improve our local environment through a positive approach to recycling.

“With this latest plan set to go out to the public, we would ask residents to continue to support this approach by engaging with the consultation and telling us how we think we can improve.”

There are also plans to open a new recycling centre in Filton, following the purchase of land on the North Bristol Park industrial estate earlier this year. The new centre is scheduled to open in 2023 as part of a 6.5million recycling project.

The public consultation will commence on Monday, June 24.