- Click here for the letsrecycle.com top 15, showing the top districts/boroughs, counties and unitary authorities for recycling and composting in 2002-03.
Once again, Daventry district council has come out on top in the combined recycling and composting rates at 44.4%. The council has high composting rates (30.1%) but fares less well on purely recycling (14.1%).
Like many of England's high performers, however, Daventry has seen little in the way of increases from its 2001-02 figures of 13.8% recycling, 30.1% composting and combined total of 43.9%.
As high performing councils have been set tougher targets by the government for 2003-04, the Daventry figures signal the difficulty some of these authorities are facing. The evidence may compound fears that some extremely good recycling and composting councils will end up missing their own targets at the end of this year.
The best council in England for purely recycling (not including composting) is Eastleigh, part of Hampshire's Project Integra partnership, with a recycling rate of 27.9%. The authority has a strict fortnightly residual waste collection scheme which has been key to its high recycling rate. But the council's statistics reveal a zero composting rate, so as green waste collections are introduced, Eastleigh will be a good bet for improving next year.
Notably good performances from councils further north in England include Wyre (33.3% recycling and composting) and Chester (26.5%) as well as Lancashire (20.2%).
WCAs
Other strong performances among the districts and boroughs have once again come from Melton (31.3%), St Edmundsbury (29.1%) and Forest Heath (30.7%).
Some councils have improved radically, with Lichfield proving that even high performers can improve further, increasing from an overall recycling and composting rate of 29.8% in 2001-02 to an impressive 42.6% in the latest figures.
However, many of the top performers saw little in the way of improvement from the previous year, while some top performers of 2001-02 have been unable to maintain their position – Castle Point in Essex slipping from eighth place nationally to 68th place with an 8.8% decrease in their overall recycling and composting rate – sliding from 27.2% to 18.4%.
WDAs
Dorset continues to lead the English counties, doing well to maintain its national 11th position with an increase in its overall recycling and composting rate from 26.5% in 2001-02 to 27.1% in 2002-03.
Other high performing counties, including Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire , Essex, Leicestershire and Devon, have also maintained similar positions in the league table, generally increasing their overall recycling and composting rates by about 2%.
Hampshire has done well to improve its already impressive 21.4% in 2001-02 to 25.6% in 2002-03, rising from 21st position to 14th nationally in the latest figures.
Other notable improvements have been seen in Lancashire – bucking the trend for generally poorer performances in the North of England – which has increased its overall rate from 16.8% to 20.2% in the latest figures. Somerset, West Sussex and Oxfordshire have also improved well.
Unitaries
The Isle of Wight has defended its lead in the unitary authorities, increasing its total recycling and composting by about 2% to 30.5%. The authority has maintained its overall level with a big jump in its composting rate – from 6.6% to 19.6% – while its recycling rate has halved from 22.0% to 10.9%.
The second best unitary, Windsor & Maidenhead, has jumped from 20th position among councils nationwide to 7th, increasing its recycling and composting total by 7% to 28.5% in 2002-03. High performing Bournemouth has also improved well, up 4.5% to 20.8% recycling and composting.
Other strong performances among unitaries have again come from Bath & North East Somerset (26.1%) and Wokingham (23.60%).
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