THE Government has again urged councils to pick up the recycling pace - with figures showing wide variations in how well they are performing.

Despite the fact that more and more household rubbish is being recycled across the North-East and North Yorkshire, councils are being told to do more to help residents.

The Government - as part of the nationwide Big Recycle campaign - says it wants to get poorly performing local authorities up to the level of their better performing counterparts when it comes to recycling.

Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said: "We want to get the bad performers up to the levels of the best performers.

"Councils have improved incredibly and so have we as a country.

"We have more than doubled the amount we recycle since 1997. We will have trebled by next year, but it's still not nearly enough, we need to do more."

According to latest figures released by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), for 2003/2004, while the region's top performer, Hambleton District Council, in North Yorkshire, was recycling 24 per cent of its household waste, Sunderland, the worst, recycled only seven per cent.

Easington District Council recycled nine per cent in the same period.

A handful of councils, including Durham City, Durham County, Darlington, North Yorkshire, Teesdale, were ahead of the rest, recycling 17 per cent and, in some instances, 18 per cent of their household waste.

However, all of these councils have since matched or surpassed targets set by the Government for the period, 2005/2006, while others are also expected to have made rapid improvements since.

The Goverment wants the national recycling average rate to hit 25 per cent this year, although individual target rates for councils vary depending on how well they are presently doing.

All of the region's councils now operate kerbside recycling schemes for items such as newspapers, glass and cans, and can arrange collection of kitchen and garden waste for recycling.

But some have gone further in a bid to boost their recycling rates.

Hambleton Council, for example, offers its residents a free 60-day trial of a composter to recycle their own household waste.

It is also involved in the promotion of a device called the 'wormery' - a bin divided into chambers which uses live Tiger worms to convert food waste into a concentrated liquid feed which can be used as a plant food.

Meanwhile, charity donations are made on behalf of residents living in the area covered by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council for each tonne of recycled rubbish collected.

One pound is donated for each tonne gathered by the firm which collects rubbish in the area, Abitibi, to the Save The Children Fund, with £2,000 since February having been handed over.

Up to 60 per cent of household waste can be recycled as an alternative to dumping it in costly and environmentally damaging landfill sites.