Ashford has been named the best in Kent when it comes to recycling for the fourth year in a row.

According to statistics by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the town had the highest percentage of household waste recycled and composted in the last financial year with 56.6% - an increase of 1.6% from the previous year.

The area also produced the least amount of waste, which was sent to landfill, placing it in the top 10 nationally.

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Amy Casey, waste and recycling education officer for Ashford Borough Council, said: “It's at the forefront of people’s minds now. It’s been talked about enough, but since Blue Planet II and the whole David Attenborough effect, I think it’s definitely been in the media a lot more.

"I think people are taking it on board our throw-away society and thinking how we can be more sustainable."

Nationwide, Ashford is now 27th in the country for recycling – a huge jump up from 35th place last year.

However, five years earlier, it was the worst in the country and Amy thinks a lot of the progress since then is “on the residents”.

“You can force and push as many messages as you want, but if your residents aren’t willing to listen then nothing will change”, she said.

“I think the residents here really do have that sense of pride and community and strive to be the best, which really does show.”

She added: “We’re quite lucky here in the sense that we have mixed recycling, so the residents just have to put all their recycling in one bin.

“We do try and make it quite simpler for them and push that message.”

Elsewhere in the county, Ashford was followed by Maidstone (51.1%), Tunbridge Wells (48.4%), Dover (47.3%), Folkestone and Hythe (45.3%), and Canterbury (43.5%).

Next up were Tonbridge and Malling (41.7%), Swale (41.2%) and Gravesham (40.7%).

However, Dartford (25.2%), Thanet (34.9%) and Sevenoaks (38.1%) were at the bottom for the total amount of household waste recycled and composted in Kent.

Figures for Medway Council were not available.