Eastleigh is named as the best in Britain and Southampton as one of the worst in Hampshire when it comes to recycling rubbish, says a national report.

But while Eastleigh council knows the competition is getting tougher, bosses at Southampton City Council have pointed out that they are cleaning up their act.

The recently-released report outlines just how big a percentage of rubbish is kept back for recycling by local authorities throughout the country. It sets out a target for every district, city, county or Borough Council to meet in two years' time and another for four years' time.

Based on the 1998-99 returns from councils, the waste management report from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions reveals that Eastleigh was the best in Britain with 26 per cent of its rubbish recycled.

The trail-blazing borough, which is having many of its initiatives followed by other authorities, introduced a twin-bin system whereby the non-recyclables put into grey bins and recyclables put into green ones are collected on alternate weeks.

Marketing and promotions manager Steve Collins said that in addition to pushing its recycling up towards 40 per cent in the past year, it has also given away 16,000 composters to borough residents to make sure the garden waste doesn't go into landfill either.

Second behind Eastleigh is Hampshire County Council, with its fast network of amenity tips, while New Forest is third in the county, with a system which enables most of its householders to put their recyclable items into clear sacks with the other waste going into black sacks.

Not far behind is Fareham, where waste that can be recycled goes into blue-topped wheelie bins and the rest into green-topped ones. The borough, a long way ahead of neighbouring Gosport, also has 27 recycling banks.

At Southampton City Council, staff said improvement is on the way.

It said in a statement that it will meet this year's target of 13 per cent and added: "The council has further pilot schemes in progress - including garden refuse collection and composting together with 100 neighbourhood recycling points - which it is anticipated will help achieve the government recycle target of 16 per cent by 2003-4.

"A major city project to build an anaerobic-digestion plant, which could help to double the city's waste recycling, is also under active consideration by the city and its partners in waste recycling."

Worst of the lot was Corporation of London, without a single tin can recycled.

Latest percentage figures and targets for 2005-06 in brackets:

Eastleigh BC 26 (40), Hampshire County Council 23 (40), New Forest District Council 22 (40), Fareham BC 20, Havant BC 17 (36), Test Valley BC 16 (36), Winchester CC 15 (36), Isle of Wight Council 13 (36), Portsmouth CC 12 (36), Hart DC 11 (33), Basingstoke and Deane BC 10 (30),

Gosport BC 9 (27), Rushmoor BC 8 (24), Southampton City Council 8 (24).

Key: BC =Borough Council, DC = District Council, CC=City Council.