West Sussex is fast running out of space for dumping household rubbish and local authorities are asking the public for help in coming up with ways of dealing with it.

About 375,000 tonnes is buried in the ground in West Sussex every year - enough to fill the Albert Hall nearly five times - and the Environment Agency has warned there will be no more space to bury rubbish by 2009.

The agency has worked with the county, district and borough councils on a plan for reducing waste and increasing recycling and composting.

A consultation document, setting out proposed targets for dealing with waste over the next five years, has been made available in libraries, help points and council offices.

Feedback should be sent to the Municipal Waste Management Strategy Co-ordinator at Waste Strategy for West Sussex, Freepost, NAT 5585, Worthing BN11 1ZW or emailed to wastestrategy@worthing.gov.uk The deadline is September 30. The strategy will be adopted early next year.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "We can all do our bit to reduce rubbish, recycle and compost more. It will take the efforts of everyone in West Sussex to win the battle against the growing amounts of waste produced in the county.

"By combining their resources in this strategy, local authorities across the county are addressing waste issues through co-ordinated practical measures."

Landfill is no longer considered acceptable as the main method of waste disposal because burying rubbish leads to the release of harmful greenhouse gasses.

The Government has set tough targets for the proportion of household waste to be recycled or composted by next year - 33 per cent in Adur, 28 per cent in Arun, 20 per cent in Crawley, 26 per cent in Horsham, 33 per cent in Mid Sussex and 24 per cent in West Sussex as a whole.