Council leads in recycling race

Recycling rates vary widely across the county

More household rubbish is being recycled in North Kesteven than anywhere else in Lincs, according to recycling figures for the county.

Boston - once the best performer - is now the worst in the county with 17.1% of all rubbish being recycled.

North Kesteven reycles 50.6% of its waste, well above its 27% target.

Councils in Lincoln City (34%), South Kesteven (27%), East Lindsey (23%), West Lindsey (28%) and South Holland (24%) are also beating their targets.

Huge disparities

The campaign group Friends of the Earth said the collection of our household waste has become something of a lottery because of varying policies.

Each district council has a different recycling collection plan, with North Kesteven providing wheelie bins - one for glass and garden waste and another for domestic rubbish.

Lincoln district council provides a black box for recycling and plastic bags for waste, but the boxes will be replaced with wheelie bins, a council spokesman said.

Helen Percy of Lincoln County Council said: "(As a county) we are recycling 27% but we need to do a lot more - we need to aim for 50% or 60%."

Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth said: "Britain has traditionally recycled at a very low level but it is increasing at quite a fast rate.

"But there are huge disparities as to what you can recycle and the type of collection and how that waste is dealt with once it is collected."