The council has admitted it has not being doing enough to encourage people to recycle after figures revealed the amount of waste it recycled dropped significantly in the past 13 years.

Just 33 per cent of what householders put out for collection across the borough of Swindon was sent for "reuse, recycling or composting" in 2022-23 - down from 50 per cent just over a decade ago.

But it might be turning around.

The rate of recycling is calculated by weight.

In 2010-11 the figure was 50 per cent, which was set by the government as a target to be met by 2020.

But from that high point figures dropped steadily, to 35 per cent in 2014-15, rising again to 42 per cent in 2019-20 but dropped again the year after.

The government says the drop after 2019-20 can be initially explained by the Covid-19 lockdowns, for example by increased use of mail order deliveries and increased waste being generated at home by people spending more time there.

Councillor Chris Watts, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for the Environment and Transport, said: “As the figures show, our recycling rates have not been at the levels we would want for several years.

“Some of this can be attributed to changes in legislation which meant that certain materials could no longer be included in the recycling figures, but I also don’t think we have been doing enough as a council to promote and encourage local residents to recycle.”

Cllr Watts said that collecting food waste from nearly every household in the borough would help increase the rate.

He continued: “One of the reasons for the changes to the waste and recycling service was to increase our recycling rate and the introduction of a separate food waste collection service is pushing us in the right direction.

“Recent analysis has shown that between December 2022 and February 2023 we collected an average of 303 tonnes of recycling a week.

“Since we began the new system the average amount of recycling collected each week has gone up to 411 tonnes, which is a fantastic response from local residents."

This is an increase of 35.6 per cent year on year.

Cllr Watts added: “This is despite all the capacity issues we have experienced within the service which we are working through. What it shows is that local residents have embraced the changes and are making a positive difference to our recycling targets, particularly when it comes to food waste.

“Our task now is to fix some of the systemic issues we have uncovered so we can deliver a more reliable service for residents that helps us to support them to recycle even more.”