WASTE recycling in West Oxfordshire has rocketed by 50 per cent over the past year, firing the district to fifth place in a league table of areas that recycle the most.

The district leaped from 146th place in last year’s letsrecycle.com survey to fifth place this year.

Of the waste collected in 2011-12, 63.1 per cent was recycled, up from 42 per cent in 2010-11 West Oxfordshire District Council launched a new recycling service in November 2010, allowing residents to recycle food waste for the first time under a seven-year deal with waste contractor May Gurney.

David Harvey, the council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “We’re thrilled and delighted with the result.

“We always thought when we brought in the new recycling rounds that this was likely to happen, but most of all we would like to thank the residents of West Oxfordshire for achieving this.

“We’re hopeful that in the next couple of years we will be able to get that figure even higher.”

But the district still lags behind pacesetters Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire, which run a joint waste collection service and topped the survey of local authorities across England for the amount they recycle.

The Vale achieved a 68.8 per cent waste recycling rate for the year, closely followed by South Oxfordshire at 68.3 per cent.

The success of the three districts follows an announcement last month by the Oxford Waste Partnership, which includes the county council and all the district authorities, that over the previous 12 months, 60.14 per cent of all the waste collected in Oxfordshire was sent for recycling.

Recycling Minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach added: “It’s tremendous the rates that the the district councils have achieved, as they are getting very near to that magical 70 per cent.

“I think we should admire and applaud Vale of White Horse for getting so close but what it also points out is that there is a huge variation in the rate of recycling.

“There are other local authorities which could do far more.”