When it comes to talking rubbish, it takes a lot to beat the villages of Stanford in-the-Vale and Drayton - they take any old junk and they are proud of it, writes Gordon Rogers.

In fact the south Oxfordshire villages are so good at garbage that they are top of the Oxfordshire trash table.

The table shows how many people use the county's waste recycling centres each year.

Stanford was top with a 45 per cent rate of recycling in just one year with Drayton coming a close second, returning a figure of nearly 40 per cent.

In third place was Redbridge, Oxford, with almost 39 per cent. Dix Pit, in Stanton Harcourt, scored a creditable rise with 30 per cent of waste being recycled following the opening of a new green waste facility.

The rest fared poorly in comparison: Dean Pit, in Chadlington, 12.2 per cent recycled; Alkerton, near Banbury, 10.1 per cent; Oakley Wood, near Wallingford, 9.9 per cent and, trailing at the bottom of the sack, was Ardley Fields, near Bicester, with five per cent of waste recycled.

The county's head of waste management, Patrick Coulter, said: "These figures are a tribute to how seriously people are taking recycling in Oxfordshire. More householders are thinking about what can be recycled instead of just throwing everything in the bin - and the contractors who run the sites are getting more effective but we still have some way to go."

In a year the eight disposal sites in Oxfordshire collected more than 60,000 tonnes of waste, of which 25 per cent was recycled. The target is 50 per cent by the end of 2003.

The key is changing habits, encouraging people to think twice and take more waste to recycling centres, according to recycling experts.

By the end of the year all sites will accept green waste as well as paper, cardboard, glass, oil, fabrics and cans.

People are also being urged to put more thought into separating rubbish when they visit the recycling centres.

Old furniture and composite materials like metal and plastic cannot be recycled. Some items left at the sites are collected and sold off as bric-a-brac.

In the European drive to recycle more and dump less, Britain is at the bottom of the league. Germany and Austria lead the way, recycling nearly 40 per cent of household rubbish - the UK recycles only ten per cent.

Recycling is part of the ongoing battle to reduce greenhouse gases and save energy. Dumping waste in land fill sites leads to more methane gases being produced, which contribute to global warming.

According to the old north of England expression "There's money in muck" and now it would appear there is money to be saved in recycling the muck.

First published: February 20, 2001