THE North-East is still bottom of the nation's regional recycling rate league table.

Figures released by Defra today reveal that although more household waste was recycled during 2004/5 in the North-East, the region is still doing less than other regions.

Recycling rates in the region rose by 3.5 per cent over the previous year to 16.4 per cent, but were still the lowest of the nine English regions.

The Eastern region came top, with 29.8 per cent, up 6.1 per cent.

Residents in the Castle Morpeth district in Northumberland were the region's best recyclers, scoring 28 per cent.

The lowest rate of recycling in the region was in Middlesbrough and Sunderland, where little more than ten per cent of household waste was recycled.

In Derwentside, County Durham, there was a drop of 1.4 per cent to 12.5 per cent.

Local Environment Quality Minister Ben Bradshaw said he was disappointed more had not been done by councils, but said the small improvement had to be sustained.

He said: "In the North-East, some of the authorities are making promising progress, but far too many are still not making the kind of progress we all expect. People really want to recycle, but we must make it easy for them."

The national figures confirm that England is on course to reach its target of recycling a quarter of rubbish by 2005/6.