SOUTH Oxfordshire residents have been honoured for boosting the amount of household waste recycled.

They increased recycling from 44 per cent to 64 per cent between April last year and March this year after the expanded collection system was introduced last June.

The district’s recycling rate is now more than 70 per cent.

The council carries out weekly collections of food waste and fortnightly collections of recyclable and non-recyclable materials and garden waste.

South Oxfordshire District Council picked up the award for the Best Improved Recycling Rate in the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee awards.

The council said it had saved it hundreds of thousands of pounds in landfill tax thanks to the huge amount of extra waste being recycled.

David Dodds, the cabinet member for waste services, who picked up the award at a ceremony in Liverpool earlier this month, said: “It’s an accolade for our residents, who have really embraced the new service and the opportunity to recycle more and reduce the amount of rubbish that we send to landfill.”