Householders in the Bradford area appear to be holding their own in the national drive to recycle more rubbish, new figures reveal.

Overall in the UK, more than 80 per cent of local authorities are collecting less waste than ever before, according to the Government.

The statistics, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, give a breakdown of how councils are contributing to the drive to reduce waste, recycle more and landfill less.

They reveal that 94 per cent of local authorities recycled and composted more household waste in 2006/7 than in the previous 12 months.

Households in Bradford threw out 352kg of rubbish per person for collection, against the lowest amount, 180kg in South Somerset, and the highest, 449kg in South Lakeland, Cumbria.

Bradford Council household waste and composting total is 24.7 per cent, compared to the country's best performer, North Kesteven, in Lincolnshire, with 55 per cent, and the worst, London's Tower Hamlets, with 11.8 per cent.

Bradford Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, executive member for environment and culture, said: "Bradford Council has made considerable progress in reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill and increasing our recycling rate.

"Only five years ago, residents recycled nine per cent of their rubbish, now that figure is nearly 25 per cent.

"We have opened a new household waste recycling centre in Manningham this year and revamped facilities at Golden Butts household waste recycling centre in Ilkley.

"We have a range of educational programmes working with children to encourage them to think about their waste, and have also introduced new kerbside collections to encourage people to recycle.

"We know that we are not the best local authority in the country at the moment, but we are continuing to put plans in place to improve our position and put us among the top ten.

"We need the public to play their part as well. We need all our residents to think about how they are disposing of their waste, to reduce the amount of waste they put into the rubbish bins and to recycle as much rubbish as they can to help us improve our performance even further."