The recycling rate top spot for England has come under question, with contrasting reports as to who actually recycles most

Confusion has arisen from Defra's local authority recycling league tables for the year 2010-11 published yesterday, with Rochford district councilbeing named top recycler with 66 percent, contrasting with reports earlier in the year that South Oxfordshire District Council held the top spot with a 70 percent rate.

South Oxfordshire District Council was ranked 2nd with a reuse, recycling and composting rate of 65.11 percent in yesterday's results.

The council has said that it believes there may be an interpretation discrepancy in some underlying data, which has reduced its rate by several percentage points and accordingly is liaising with Defra and the Environment Agency over the matter.

Defra stated that these annual results summarise waste collected and managed by local authorities in England and the regions between the financial years between 2009/10 and 2010/11 and were based on data submitted to WasteDataFlow.

"They replace the provisional estimates published for the first three quarters of 2010-11 in February, May and August 2011," Defra said in a statement.

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Darrel Moore