WHEN people separate their rubbish to recycle, they do it in the belief that their actions are helping to make the world a better place.

It must be disconcerting then to read our front page story, in which it is revealed that Hampshire is shipping most of its waste paper half way around the world.

It turns out that some 67 per cent of the county’s recycling was shipped 11,000 nautical miles from Southampton to China between April and June this year, instead of being recycled here in the UK.

All of Hampshire’s councils, including Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, are part of Project Integra, working with waste disposal firm Veolia.

Both the firm and councils say that recent closures of UK paper mills have forced the project to look elsewhere for sites where paper can be recycled.

But surely there must be better options than having to go half way around the world with the majority of the county’s recycling?

Campaigners have understandably slammed the decision and it’s easy to see why.

As Martin Heath, director of Basingstoke Energy Services Co-operative, said: “The problem is we create far too much waste in Hampshire to start with. We don’t recycle much of it and what we do recycle now gets shipped to China which is totally inappropriate behaviour.

“This is not the way to run a modern economy. It is inefficient, inappropriate and it doesn’t do the planet much good either.”

The Gazette hopes that the project looks again at where the waste is going so that people can have confidence in recycling.