The people of Oxfordshire deserve huge praise for their recycling efforts.

Government figures show that we are sending almost a quarter less waste to landfill than a decade ago.

What's more, we are one of the best performing counties in the country, beating all our neighbours.

Of course, as Friends of the Earth rightly points out, we could be doing better, but it is a promising start.

What we must now do is to build on the progress we have made - but we can't do it all by ourselves.

Retailers and manufacturers could help us by reducing the packaging on their goods.

Many are obsessed with wrapping everything in cellophane, plastic and cardboard.

This may be required with perishable food, but on many products, it is wasteful and unnecessary.

Some stores which insist on excessive packaging have found it dumped at their tills by angry customers.

That may be a bit over the top, but we all need to send a message to firms that we don't need everything wrapped.

Shops could also help immensely to cut waste if they stopped the ridiculous practice of issuing free plastic bags.