The Suffolk council has staked an early claim for the status of England's top recycler with its performance of 50.6% in un-audited results for 2004/05.
A spokesperson for the council told letsrecycle.com St Edmunsbury had achieved the performance with a combination through recycling 23.13% of household waste collected and composting 27.51%.
Councils throughout England are now tabulating their performance data for recycling and composting from April 2004 to March 2005, ready to report to the government.
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Awarded Beacon status for its waste services, St Edmundsbury has run an alternate weekly collection service since September 2003, funded through a Defra grant shared with neighbouring Forest Heath council. The council achieved a 35% recycling rate in 2003/04, making it the fourth best English waste collection authority for recycling (see recycling league tables).
Harborough
St Edmundsbury just pipped the Leicestershire district of Harborough to the post, just beating Harborough's 48% recycling rate for 2004/05. However, Harborough could well be one of the most improved councils in the country for recycling – it achieved its 48% rate just a year after achieving a 15% recycling rate in 2003/04, when it was only 239th in the English league.
The district used a 1.3 million government grant towards its new collection system in place for all 33,455 homes. Of its 48% recycling rate, 19 percentage points came from dry recyclables and 29 percentage points from green waste composting.
Success
A spokesman for Harborough council said: “Residents across the district have shown how environmentally conscious they are by working with the council and backing the twin bin system. This is the sort of success the district can build on.”
The dedication of the borough's collection staff was recognised last year with driver Steve Bord and operator Paul Nichols of Onyx Market Harborough picking up prestigious awards for their efforts at the Awards for Excellence for Recycling and Waste Management 2004 (see Awards for Excellence website).
As with St Edmundsbury, these local authority recycling figures are un-audited, and could change slightly before being formally reported to the government – however, Harborough said: “Although the figures may change slightly, it will only be a very small variation.”
Daventry
Some councils that have already been achieving high recycling rates have struggled to improve on their past performances.
Daventry district council has achieved a 45% rate for household waste recycling in 2004/05. This was an improvement on its “bad year” of 2003/04, when a dry summer saw its rate fall, but only slightly higher than the 44% achieved two years ago, when the council was the best for recycling in the UK.
The Northamptonshire district's recycling manager, Sue Reed, said this level represents the “optimum” level for the system the council currently has in place. Commenting on areas for potential progress in future years, she said: “We're not yet collecting kitchen waste, and also we need some targeted education – things have been left to just carry on, we need to look at our poorer-performing areas and target them a little more with information.”
Eastleigh
Eastleigh district council in Hampshire, which was also in the top ten English councils for recycling last year, has been another to have crept only slightly upwards.
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A spokesman told letsrecycle.com the council had reached a 32.6% recycling and composting rate – this is one percentage point higher than last year's rate. However, it means Eastleigh is continuing to surpass levels needed to reach its statutory recycling target for 2005/06.
The council uses a twin-bin alternate week recycling and refuse collection system, with a separate glass recycling service. Eastleigh is also running a trial green waste collection service.
Did your council achieve impressive results for recycling in 2004/05? Call the letsrecycle.com newsdesk on 020 7785 6448 or email: news@letsrecycle.com.
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