IT IS a case of “do as I say do not as I do” for en-vironmentally minded Oxfordshire residents.

Despite recycling rates at district council offices rising dramatically over the past three years, some councils are re-cycling less than their residents.

The city council recycles 37.5 per cent of it own waste, but its residents’ recycling rate is more than 50 per cent.

Residents in South Oxfordshire and the Vale also recycle more than their council.

The figures for council offices come from a series of audits carried out by the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) and Oxford Brookes University, and follow similar tests in 2008.

On average, 65 per cent of office waste at the councils is now recycled, compared with 46 per cent in 2008.

Oxford City Council spokesman Chris Lee said: “We are very proud to have increased our office recycling rate by such a large percentage over a relatively short time.

“We still have some way to go, but since the audits were carried out, we have already upgraded several of our recycling contracts and introduced food waste recycling at our main sites.”

In 2008, the district councils sent 126.88 tonnes of waste to landfill, but that figure is now down to 61.2 tonnes.

Cherwell District Council staff recycle 80 per cent of their in-house rubbish; South Oxfordshire District Council 69 per cent; Vale of White Horse 38.5 per cent and West Oxfordshire 70 per cent.

Michael Esvelt, director of the Environmental Information Exchange at Oxford Brookes, said: “We naturally expected district councils to have high levels of recycling, but these current findings put their offices in the top quarter of all businesses we survey.”

James Macnamara, Cherwell’s lead member for environment and a member of OWP, said: “Our mantra is that you can’t expect people to do anything you are not willing to do yourself.

“Residents in the district are extremely successful at recycling and it is only right that staff at the council work just as hard at that.”

Caroline Croghan, management support officer at Cherwell’s Thorpe Lane waste and recycling depot, is one of the council’s green champions. She said: “It is important to see the council setting an example to residents.”

Gavin Walton, a spokesman for Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils, said: “We always try to recycle more, and we are analysing these figures.”

OWP chairman Lorraine Lindsay-Gale said: “There’s still progress to be made, but we’re improving all the time.”

As reported in the Oxford Mail in January, Oxford’s recycling rate for residents was 50.5 per cent; South Oxfordshire District Council’s provisional rate was 70 per cent; and 83 per cent of waste was recycled in the first two weeks of a new system in Vale of White Horse.

Cherwell’s rate was 51 per cent and West Oxfordshire 34 per cent before it introduced a new waste collection system in November.

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk