THE county of Essex has managed to improve its recycling rate year-on-year by five per cent, new figures have shown.And the Colchester, Chelmsford and Braintree districts lead the way in composting and recycling, according to the National Big Recycling Week survey.

THE county of Essex has managed to improve its recycling rate year-on-year by five per cent, new figures have shown.

And the Colchester, Chelmsford and Braintree districts lead the way in composting and recycling, according to the National Big Recycling Week survey.

The figures reveal that the amount of refuse recycled across the county has leapt from 24.9% to 29.8%.

All district and borough councils in the county improved on their recycling figures from 2003/2004, helping Essex achieve the increase.

The Government has set Essex a statutory recycling target next year of 30%, meaning the county came just 0.2% away from achieving this a year early.

However, Essex County Council has set itself a much tougher aim of recycling 33% of rubbish next year.

To achieve this target Essex residents will need to recycle and compost an extra 22,476 tonnes, equivilent to an extra 40kg per household or the weight of an average Sunday newspaper a week.

"The fact that as a county we have recycled more than ever is a tremendous achievement, and one that we should all be proud of.

"Essex is one of the leading counties when it comes to recycling, and this shows that we have every determination to get better," said Peter Martin, the council's cabinet member with responsibility for the environment.

"Recycling is an easy way to help keep our environment green and protect it for future generations.

"As more kerbside collections are added across the county, doing your bit to help is becoming much easier and really no-one in the county should have an excuse for not recycling."

The biggest increase has been seen in composting, up 35% on last year.

Recycling of other materials such as glass, paper, textiles, plastic has increased by 17%.

In the Colchester area, the amount of waste recycled and composted in the year 2004/2005 was 29.75%, compared with 24.78% the previous year.

The Chelmsford figure rose from 22.26% to 26.41 while Braintree rose from 21.25% to 28.45%.

Tendring scored an overall recycling and composting average of just 19.94%, but scored that figure purely from recycled household waste – it registered 0% for composting – which as a lone figure was the highest of all councils in the category.

The worst result for a district of Essex was Rochford, where just 12.31% of its household waste was recomposted and recycled.