Redcar & Cleveland Council tops North East league for recycling as landfill tax amount is set to rocket to £62M in region if action is not taken Landfill Tax, designed to encourage recycling, is due to rise very sharply over the next four years from the current £48 per tonne to £80 per tonne by 2014 and that's why recycling has to be the order of the day says GMB.

Landfill Tax, designed to encourage recycling, is due to rise very sharply over the next four years from the current £48 per tonne to £80 per tonne by 2014 and that's why recycling has to be the order of the day says GMB.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has the best record for recycling in the North East region with 43.3% of household waste sent for re-use, recycling, or composting. Next in the regional league is Newcastle-upon-Tyne 41.1%, followed by Hartlepool 39.1%, Northumberland 39%, North Tyneside 36.7% and Durham County 36.3%.

At the other end of the league is Middlesbrough Borough Council which has the worst recycling record of all 12 councils in the region. Where only 22.8% of household waste sent for re-use, recycling, or composting. Next at the bottom of the league are Sunderland City Council 27.2%, followed by South Tyneside Council 29%, Stockton-on-Tees 30.4%, Gateshead Council 31% and Darlington Borough Council with 36.2%.

The above figures are from a new analysis by GMB public services union which represents refuse staff. The analysis is of the official household waste figures for all 12 councils in the North East region for 2009/10 and are set out in the table below.

They are ranked by councils achieving the highest percentage of re-use, recycling or composting. See notes to editors for definitions and sources. Also in the table is the number of tonnes of household waste not sent for recycling for each council in the region. Some of this waste will be incinerated at a cost to the council tax payers. The rest will be sent to landfill as will municipal waste from commercial businesses.

Under the EU regulations to cut down on waste sent to landfill a landfill tax of £48 a tonne has to be paid in 2010, rising to £80 in 2014. Set out in the table is a calculation on the cost to the council tax payers if all the household waste not recycled was sent to landfill at the 2010 rate and also a calculation on the figure that would be payable in 2014 at the higher rate of £80.

For the region as a whole, the total cost of the landfill tax if all household waste not recycled was sent to landfill in 2010 at £48 per tonne would be £37,646,013. This figure would rise dramatically to £62,743,356 in 2014 if it was all sent to landfill. This creates a powerful incentive to increase the amount of household waste to be re-used, recycled or composted.

Tom Brennan, GMB Regional Secretary for the North East, said "Dumping waste in landfill sites is not only bad for the environment - it s also increasingly uneconomic. Landfill Tax, designed to encourage recycling, is due to rise very sharply over the next four years from the current £48 per tonne to £80 per tonne by 2014 and that's why recycling has to be the order of the day. At the moment the bill is around £I billion per annum charged on households through the council tax and the total cost including landfill site fees is double that.

GMBs data shows that some councils are recycling a good proportion of their waste and therefore paying relatively little landfill tax. However there are huge variations between the best and the worst with no obvious explanation for these differences, although some councils use incineration facilities which are slightly cheaper than paying for landfill.

Unless councils make a concerted effort to improve recycling rates the landfill tax bill is set to rise by around £670 million per annum taking the total cost of landfill to over £3 billion per annum. As things stand, those households under the poorest performing councils will carry the brunt of that. The message is that improving recycling is not only right for the environment but it will save money off council tax."