WHEN it comes to recycling Eastleigh Borough Council and Hampshire County Council are ranked among the top ten in the country - but Southampton is literally rubbish according to newly released government figures.

Recycling of materials such as paper, compost, glass, plastic and tin in England is at its highest level and the government said the figures would help the country meet its 2003-2004 national target of recycling and composting 17 per cent of total household waste.

A more ambitious national target of recycling and composting 25 per cent of total household waste has been set for 2005-2006.

While figures from the Municipal Waste Management Survey for 2002- 03 - just released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - show Eastleigh and Hampshire are already above that figure, Southampton is languishing well behind.

With a recycling figure of nearly 30 per cent, Eastleigh is named as fourth in the country and Hampshire County Council occupies eighth position with nearly 27 per cent.

But Southampton recorded a dismal 12 per cent.

Test Valley and Winchester fared only just better with 15 per cent and 16 per cent respectively, while Fareham recorded a figure of 23 per cent and both New Forest and the Isle of Wight hit 24 per cent.

Southampton City Council's head of waste and open spaces, Gordon Adams, admitted: "Southampton's recycling performance in the past has been disappointing.

It was partly due to the availability of recycling processing facilities."

But he added:"We have now moved to twin bin alternate week collections for a proportion of the city and we are actually hitting 30 per cent in those areas.

"Our target this year is 17.5 per cent and the following year it is 24 per cent."