Hertsmere has been listed as one of the worst councils in Eastern England for recycling.

Out of 48 councils in the East of England Regional Assembly, Hertsmere came in 30th place with 10.5 per cent of waste being recycled, compared to St Albans in fourth place with 17.4 per cent.

And next year Hertsmere will have to achieve 22 per cent, in order the reach the Government's targets for recycling waste.

The figures were compiled by the GMB Union's London branch, whose senior public services officer Justin Bowden said councils should be aiming for 30 per cent of household waste to be recycled.

"We need the kerbside collection services. We need safe practices for GMB members who do the recycling. We need education and TV adverts to alert households what can and cannot be recycled," he said.

The GMB figures were compiled from the Government's Best Value Performance Indicator reports from 2002/3, but this week Hertsmere said it had improved its performance since then, and had a target of 14 per cent recycling for the current financial year.

Labour councillor Leon Reefe said this was not good enough, and blamed the ruling Conservatives for Hertsmere's poor results, saying they had failed to introduce schemes that would have helped, because they were too expensive.

"They came up with a box for recycling newspapers and that's okay, but there are only a certain number of newspapers people can recycle. They're not going to start buying extra ones just to recycle them."

Mr Reefe said the council should have special recycling bins which people could put all recyclable materials in, to be sorted at the refuse site by a machine. He also criticised the council for only introducing its Green Waste Recycling scheme to reuse garden waste, in certain parts of the borough, not including Borehamwood.

A council spokesman said: "2002/3 was a relatively long time ago, there has been significant improvement made since then, both locally and nationally."

He said that, from next financial year, all Hertfordshire councils would be aiming at 22 per cent of their waste being recycled, and they would work together to achieve this.

Hertsmere would be in a better position to reach its target, as it would have a new waste transfer station in Potters Bar, and a new fleet of rubbish trucks.

"The target is rising from 14 per cent to 22 per cent in the next financial year. That's a steep rise, but we are confident we can reach it." Green Waste Recycling was being rolled out across the borough, and new equipment would increase efficiency.

"There have been a number of problems in the past with recycling, but now Hertsmere is forming a commitment to increasing its recycling performance."

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