A debate over recycling has arisen after Stockton was revealed to have the worst rate in the region.

The Conservatives have said the system in the town is “not fit for purpose” and recycling rates are among the worst in the country while Labour, which runs Stockton Council, counters its waste and recycling service is popular and leads to more clean and uncontaminated recycling.

Both parties suggest a review of recycling receptacles in their manifestos for the local elections on May 4.

Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show Stockton Council’s household waste recycling rate of 25.7 per cent was the lowest in the North East in 2021-2, with England’s average rate at 42.5 per cent, in data which also includes street bins and sweepings, parks and grounds waste, soil, healthcare waste and asbestos.

Conservative Leader Councillor Tony Riordan said: “Labour seems to think the only way to solve our inadequate recycling rates is to reduce how regularly we collect waste. We disagree and will protect weekly bin collections.

“Conservatives are committed to protecting our weekly bin collections and improving the containers used to gather recycling at the kerbside. We’re also determined to work more closely with schools, facilitating their recycling and encouraging youngsters to understand the benefits of recycling.

“Residents have been telling us for ages that the white bags used for kerbside are simply not practical nor fit for purpose. Often they get blown down the street, spilling the contents and leaving residents without a bag to recycle the next week.

“Our council tax is up by 38 per cent since 2016 and amongst the highest in the country yet our money is mismanaged. The council is failing to deliver the value for money, which is stark given our embarrassing ranking on the leader board.”

Recycling is part of the manifesto of the Conservative group, saying: “Under Labour Stockton’s recycling rates are amongst the worst in the entire country, and the system used in Stockton is not fit for purpose. A Conservative council would review the receptacles used, as people can’t recycle when their recycling bag blows away every week.”

Labour group leader Cllr Bob Cook responded: “We are one of a very small number of councils that still do weekly household waste collections, which is very popular with our residents. Our waste and recycling collection service is our most popular service – our last three residents’ surveys have found 90 per cent of our residents are satisfied with it.

“Councils that still do weekly household waste collections generally have lower recycling rates than those that have moved to fortnightly. The overwhelming feedback from our residents is that they are satisfied with having a weekly collection.

“We haven’t moved to fortnightly but we’re waiting with interest for the government to announce its plans for the collection of food waste across the country which they have promised to bring forward for the last two years. In our manifesto we have suggested a review of the receptacles for recycling, but a higher proportion of what we do collect for recycling is clean and uncontaminated, thanks to the separation of materials.

“If you collect recyclable materials in one big wheelie bin it’s much more likely to get contaminated and much less likely to be of a decent quality because it’s all mixed in. Our recycling contamination levels are around 3% – councils that collect in recycling in a wheelie bin generally see much higher contamination rates than this.

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“The Labour group have protected the weekly refuse collection, it is councillors from the Conservative group that have suggested we move to fortnightly refuse collection. Our council finances are well managed, we are told this by the councils auditors.

“The government have cut £73m from our budget over the last 13 years and they are expecting local residents to fill that gap. They also introduced the social care levy to councils instead of funding social care by national taxation.”

The issue of the recycling rates was raised in a council meeting last November by Cllr Stefan Houghton, who said “we’re nearly the worst in the country” and asked if the council had taken on board other councils’ schemes helping residents improve their waste management.

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Cabinet member for environment and transport Cllr Mike Smith replied: “We’re always there to help them. Like all authorities within this country, we’re waiting for the waste strategy for England, which we’ve been waiting for for four years from this Conservative government.

“This will determine how to collect waste in the future. The council has readied itself as much as we possibly can, but until they make their minds up which way we’re going to jump, we can’t move any further forward. For them to sit on it for four years is absolutely diabolical.

“Stockton will continue to carry on providing the excellent collection service that we do for all properties and to encourage the separation of recycling materials. We’re always looking at ways of encouraging more recycling and in June of this year we launched a scheme for residents to recycle soft plastics.”