Greed is good, after a fashion. More people are recycling their rubbish because of incentives such as prizes of money, cars or holidays. This, and extra funding for local schemes, has raised the amount recycled in half of the country.

The increase in recycling was welcomed by the Friends of the Earth but the pressure group warned much more needed to be done to catch up with other European countries.

Mike Childs, campaigns director at Friends of the Earth, said: “This is very good news that the reward system is working.

“But we still have some of the poorest recycling rates in Europe, and so the government has to look at ways of encouraging people to recycle more.

“This may involve charging people for the amount of rubbish they produce but providing them with a free recycling service.”

Technorati tag: Recycling