Residents in the District recycled 29.35% of all dry materials last year (including cans, plastic bottles, papers, cardboard, glass etc), and it is currently recycling 31.32%. Only Chiltern (32.1%), Broadland (30.96%), South Norfolk (29.57%) and Mole Valley (29.43%) appeared above the Chichester District.

‘These excellent results illustrate just how well all of our residents are recycling, and so we would like to say a big thank you to everyone across the District,’ said Cllr Andrew Shaxson, Portfolio Holder for the Environment.

‘Everyone is pulling together, and by recycling as much as possible they are making a real difference to the District’s environment, and ensuring that future generations will benefit from the work that is being carried out now.

‘We would also like to ask everyone to keep up the great work that has already been achieved – especially coming up to the Christmas period when we create large amounts of waste packaging and food and drink containers, almost all of which can be recycled.’

To reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill even further, the District Council launched its green bin composting service this year. Our target is to increase the overall recycling and composting rate to over 40% by 2010.

DEFRA announced that 261 (66%) of local authorities met or exceeded their individual target for 2005/6.

Nationally, 26.7% of household waste was recycled in 2005/6 – exceeding the Government’s target of 25% and up from 7% in 1996/7. This confirmed that recycling had almost quadrupled since 1997.

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