ROCHFORD District Council’s high recycling rates were celebrated on BBC television this morning.

The local authority has been the best recycler in the country for three of the last four years, with 66.82 per cent of all waste recycled in 2012/13.

Richard Evans, the council’s head of environmental services, took to the famous BBC Breakfast sofa to discuss how to reduce the 100,000 of contaminated recycling that ends up in landfill each year.

He shared how the Rochford District achieve their chart-topping recycling rates.

Mr Evans said: “Basically it is about making the scheme as sharp as we can make it and we work very closely with our contractors.

“It’s about trying to make the scheme simple, people don’t want to think about their bins all the time.”

In 2008 the council’s recycling rate was just 19.4 per cent, meaning a near50 per cent increase in recycled waste in just five years, thanks to the new, simple, three-bin system.

Council portfolio holder for the environment, Ian Ward, said: “Rochford District is leading the way when it comes to recycling, and hopefully this national coverage will mean that others can follow in our footsteps.

“The beauty of our recycling scheme is in its simplicity and I think residents appreciate that. Without them buying into the scheme it simply wouldn’t work – so I’d like to thank our residents for all their recycling efforts.”