WEYMOUTH and Portland residents have officially been named the least wasteful in the country for the second year running.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) report on waste and recycling levels for the past year shows the borough has further reduced the amount of rubbish thrown away since being named the least wasteful in 2009.

The report takes into consideration all local councils in England and credits Weymouth and Portland residents for being the best in the country for reducing their household waste.

The average total waste per head for the 2009/10 period was only 284.69 kilograms (627.63 lb).

Weymouth and Portland’s recycling and waste manage-ment team is now advising DEFRA on how to help other areas follow in the borough’s green footsteps.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s spokesman for environment and sustain-ability, Councillor Brendan Webster, said: “I am absolutely delighted with these figures.

“Last year’s report proved how dedicated local residents and the council’s recycling team have been when it comes to reducing, reusing and recycling their waste and to beat this record is an excellent result.

“Initiatives that have helped towards this achievement include the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign and local Give or Take community waste exchange events, which have saved a huge amount of unwanted items from going to landfill.

“Council officers also ran a competition with local schools to promote pumpkin and food recycling at Hallowe’en, which saw three local schools winning garden centre vouchers and saving over half a ton of waste from going to landfill.

“I would like to sincerely congratulate local residents for making this outstanding result possible. Let’s keep up the good work and continue to waste less and recycle more in 2010/11.”

He added: “Our success is down to the co-operation between residents and the council and I think we’ve got a very good, forward-looking programme.

“This is being backed up by the new waste partnership scheme that we’ve signed up to, which aims to reduce costs while maintaining a high level of service.”