SOUTH Oxfordshire residents are the best recyclers in the country, according to the latest government figures.

And their neighbours in the Vale are close behind.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) statistics showed South Oxfordshire District Council had a recycling rate of 65.71 per cent.

The Vale was marginally behind with a recycling rate of 65.27 per cent, and both councils have been in the top three local authorities for recycling for three years.

SODC and the Vale began fortnightly waste collections for household waste and recycling in 2010 and recycling rates have soared.

Cabinet member for waste at SODC David Dodds said: “The service is designed to make recycling easy and residents have responded by ensuring they recycle as much rubbish as possible, and by limiting the amount of other waste that is produced.”

SODC and the Vale have shared a waste collection service with Biffa since 2010, saving £1.2m.

The councils recently extended the Biffa contract and it will now run until 2024.

In West Oxfordshire the recycling rate is 57.42 per cent, in Cherwell it is 53.9 per cent, and in Oxford city it is 45 per cent.

Recycling rates nationally for 2013 were 44.2 per cent, up only slightly from the 2012 figure of 44.1 per cent and David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of recycling company SITA UK, warned of the danger of missing the target to recycle 50 per cent of household waste by 2020.

 

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