The recycling rates that are given on the Northamptonshire council website are going vary between each authority due to a number of factors. Firstly the average size the houses in each district will effect the figures. For example an inner city district may have a high number of terrace housing, which only occupy 1-2 people, so therefore their will be less household waste produced compared to a larger house in a district on the suburbs of the Northampton, where up to 4-5 people may live. Also the bigger housing on the suburbs may have bigger gardens, so therefore more garden waste will be produced.
Secondary the rates might also vary due to peoples attitude. Some people may not be bothered about doing there bit for the environment, so they don’t bother to recycle. Also the recycling bins are kept outside, so if the weather is bad, some people might not be bothered to take the waste outside, so they will just simply but it in the bin full of household waste.

Things that could be done to improve the recycling rates are to increase the number collections. Instead of collecting the recyclable waste one every two weeks, collect it once a week because in the space of two weeks, the bins provided might get very full, so people will have no choice but to but the recyclable waste into a household waste bin. However you could also overcome this problem by providing larger bins for the houses that need them.
Also businesses and schools need to do more to recycle. At the moment most schools and businesses don’t recycle due to the costs involved. So to get them to recycle, the government could do incentives to encourage them to do so.