AS RECYCLE Week comes to a close, Cornwall Council has released new statistics to reveal which residents are the ‘best recyclers’.

Bude had the fourth highest recycling rate (28.49%), Launceston tenth (24.84%) and Camelford eleventh (24.30%).

Truro and Roseland has the highest rates at 30.27%.

The average household in Cornwall throws away 500kg of rubbish every year, but a survey of household waste revealed that around 25% of material put out for collection could have been recycled with the possibility of, for example, old aluminium cans being turned into anything from foil trays to aeroplanes.

A recent study showed four in ten are confident they put their recycling in the right bins, this is down six per cent on last year.

Cllr Sue James, Cornwall Council’s Portfolio holder for environment and public protection said the survey reinforced many people are confused about what can be recycled, highlighting the need for more public information. She said: “We’ve launched a social media campaign to help residents understand what can be recycled, what happens to their waste, and the impact this has on the environment. For example, lots of people don’t know you can recycle things like shampoo bottles, or that you don’t need to remove labels from jars.

“Across most areas of Cornwall, you can now recycle plastic pots, tubs and trays — things like yogurt pots and bottle tops. This is something which many residents said they wanted.

“While most of us do our bit to recycle what we can, certain items around the house are somehow missing the recycling container and recycling just a few more items can make a big difference. We know through our surveys of household waste that people can recycle much more — our kerbside collections are available for paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, tin foil, glass bottles, and — for the majority of areas — plastic pots, tubs and trays.”

For more information, to order recycling containers or to report a missed collection visit www.cornwall.gov.uk/recycling or call 0300 1234 141.