Recycling saves as much carbon dioxide emissions as taking 3.5m cars off the road each year, according to new data. The equivalent of between 10m and 15m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions - about 10 per cent of the greenhouse gases emitted by UK households each year - are avoided by recycling materials such as glass, paper, plastics, aluminium and steel.

But the Waste and Resources Action Programme, a government- funded body charged with improving recycling, said far more could be done to recycle rubbish and further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as the UK re- cycled far less than con- tinental European countries.