by Arryn Moy BBC News Online, East Midlands

Most councils are recycling more of the waste we produce.

A national report shows how well councils across the East Midlands, and the country, are at saving the countryside from being ripped open for landfill sites.

Government figures have looked at how every council in England copes with cycling and it found huge differences.

There are wide variations, even in neighbouring authorities, and shows that some councils really are, well, rubbish.

Across the East Midlands, there are councils recycling just 3% or 4% of what we put in our wheelie bins, red boxes and refuse sacks.

The region has one council recycling 44% of the waste that residents dump. That is ten times better than councils just next door.

The government must provide more support and funding for councils to ensure that every household has a comprehensive doorstep recycling scheme. Georgina Bloomfield, Friends of the Earth

Many authorities have successfully applied for government money to give residents extra bins or boxes to get their schemes up and running.

Not everyone is impressed with the changes that followed, and hundreds of Leicestershire people have tried to get Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to re-think its decision to turn collections from weekly to fortnightly.

This was part of its recycling drive and it wants residents to put more waste out for recycling. But the changes did not go down well, although it has refused to back down and new collection rotas continue,

'25kg waste'

There really is no set pattern to how recycling is carried out.

Some people have a summer collection of garden waste with a green bin. Others have boxes or bags, for paper collections one week, followed by bottles and cans the week after.

Government figures show an average home produces about 25kg of waste each week, much of which goes in the bins.

But some is taken to the local civic amenity site, better known as the tip.

More people are recycling - but there are regional variations.

There is a drive to dig fewer holes in the countryside and pack them with waste, but instead to re-use waste with recycling plants for paper and bottles or even compost sites.

Mansfield District Council is languishing near the bottom of the official table, with just 1% of waste recycled in 1998/9. That has only risen to 4% in four years, according to the government figures.

The council claims to have at least tripled that and can now count on figures in the low teens Even that is a long way short of other authorities.

It introduced a blue bin scheme three years ago, with 83% of homes in the north Notts area using the twin bin system, and this will be extended to more homes.

Sue Lievers, recycling officer, said: "Our current recycling rate is hovering around 13 or 14%, depending on when you look at it.

"At the end of a blue bin recycling week it can be up near 15%, at the end of a green bin residual week it can be below 13%."

'Education drive'

She explained the drive to get people recycling continues.

The council is also looking at bringing in a garden waste collection next year, and employing two project officers to inspect bins and help educate residents.

It is aiming to hold informative displays in public areas and produce stickers for wheeled bins listing the materials which should be put in the blue recycling bin.

Mansfield District Council is rolling out its blue bin recycling scheme.

The national figures show up a trend where councils in urban areas do not fare so well in the recycling league table.

Those living in smaller homes and flats struggle to find room for extra boxes in their homes.

More bins and extra boxes cannot easily be left outside terraced homes, without gardens, and high rise flats.

And trends show more affluent and rural councils do better in the league tables.

Daventry District Council, a large rural authority in west Northants, towers over the list and is not far from recycling half the rubbish its residents throw out, with a 44% rate.

EUROPEAN RECYCLING RATES - 2001 Netherlands 59% Austria 58% Germany 53% Belgium 39% Sweden 39% Luxembourg 36% Denmark 32% Spain 28% Finland 25% France 25% Italy 24% Ireland 13% United Kingdom 13% Greece 9% Portugal 4%

Its 15% figure from 1998-99 is better than most councils are achieving now.

The government launched a �10m drive on Monday to get more waste recycled, but the UK is still lagging behind most of Europe, says Friends of the Earth.

Its waste campaigner, Georgina Bloomfield, said: "We welcome this campaign to encourage householders to think of their waste as a resource and make full use of their recycling facilities.

"But more needs to be done to help people recycle. The government must provide more support and funding for councils to ensure that every household has a comprehensive doorstep recycling scheme.

"The UK should follow the example of our European neighbours who are already recycling over half of their domestic waste.

"But we will not have a recycling record to be proud of until recycling is as easy as throwing out the rubbish."