Recycling trebles over one decade

But householders are still throwing away more than 60 per cent of their rubbish, the statistics from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)found.

The proportion of household waste being recycled, composted or reused rose slightly last year from 37.6 per cent in 2008/2009 to 39.7 per cent in 2009/2010.

According to the figures, 9.4 million tonnes of waste was recycled last year, up from 9.1 million the year before and more than three times the 2.8 million tonnes recycled in 2000/2001.

The overall amount of waste created by households has fallen by 2.7 per cent on the previous year and now stands at 23.7 million tonnes.

Each English household threw away on average just over a tonne of

rubbish in the year, of which 625kg ended up in landfill or incinerated. The amount of waste being sent to landfill by local councils fell by 9.4 per cent to 12.5 million tonnes last year.