A NEW league table shows that Redruth North is the worst area in Cornwall for recycling household waste.

Cornwall Council has issued full details of how well every area of Cornwall is performing in terms of the percentage of waste which is put out for recycling on the kerbside.

The council currently operates a fortnightly recycling collection with all other rubbish – black bag waste – collected weekly.

However it is considering flipping this when it awards a new contract for waste collection with recycling collected weekly and fortnightly black bag collection. The council is also looking to introduce a new weekly food waste collection service.

It is hoped that the change could increase the amount of waste which is recycled and the new league table suggests that areas such as Redruth North need to improve, with just 13.8% of waste being recycled.

The other areas in the bottom 10 are Newquay Central, Penzance East, Penzance Central, Pool and Tehidy, Camborne Trelowarren, Camborne Treslothan, Bodmin St Leonard, Gwinear Gwithian and St Erth and St Ives West.

Top of the league with 40.7% of waste being recycled is Feock and Playing Place.

Also in the top 10 are Mullion and Grade Ruan, Truro Trehaverne, Falmouth Boslowick, Torpoint West, St Agnes, Bude, Saltash West, Wadebridge East and Constantine, Mawnan and Budock.

Cornwall Council said it believed it was the only local authority in the country to publish recycling rates for all parish areas.

The council said that overall Cornwall had increased the amount of waste being recycled by 0.71% while cutting the amount of black bag waste by 1.2kg per household.

Redruth South was the best area for increasing the amount of waste recycled, jumping from 21% last year to 25% this year.

And households in Torpoint West get the award for cutting black bag waste by reducing it by 46kg per home.

Sue James, Cabinet member for the environment, said that cutting the amount of waste produced in the home was as effective in protecting the environment as recycling.

“By reducing the amount of waste we create in the first place, we cut down on the use of raw materials and pollution association with production,” she said.

“We should all be aiming to reduce, reuse and recycle. 

“These statistics show that communities across Cornwall are recycling, but there’s always more that can be done – there is the potential for households in Cornwall to recycle around 60 percent of their waste.

“As part of our kerbside collections we collect a range of items including paper, cardboard, tins/cans, tin foil, glass bottles, and plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays.”