Householders are failing to recycle enough rubbish.

Damning figures out today reveal the county has some of the lowest recycling/ composting improvement rates in England.

The figures also show low recycling/composting rates in some districts, which the Government has described as disappointing.

Hastings has the worst recycling record of only 11 per cent while Arun achieved 13.91 per cent in 2004/05 and Rother scored 14.1 per cent.

Worthing, Lewes and Brighton and Hove all marked poorly with 16.87 per cent, 17.7 per cent and 19.8 per cent respectively.

Their rates of improvement varied from less than one per cent to more than four.

The overall improvement rate for the South-East, which in 2004/5 recycled 26 per cent, was 3.4 per cent - the lowest in the country - with the highest being the East Midlands which improved by seven per cent and recycled 27 per cent.

Recycling targets count towards council performance assessments and if councils miss them it can affect their annual Government funding.

Environmentalists said authorities needed to drastically overhaul their approach to reusing waste.

Brenda Pollack, of Friends Of The Earth, said: "There are a number of councils that aren't doing well enough. A lot are doing just enough to reach their targets.

"It has been shown a lot of people would recycle a lot more if it was made easy. Councils aren't responding to that.

"Fifty per cent should be easy to reach within a few years."

The news comes on the day Hastings councillors are expected to call for a vote of no confidence in their cabinet because of a £350,000 overspend on its recycling programme.

Independent auditors described the management of Hastings' recycling improvement project, launched last year, as "poor".

Councillor Paul Smith, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "The leader of the council admitted we should have sought proper advice."

Councillor Godfrey Daniel, Hastings councillor for the environment, said the problems arose because it took too long for the Department for Environment to allocate a grant.

He said: "For the past quarter, our rate was 19.4 per cent. Now everybody in the town has kerbside recycling.

"If the Government had given us money earlier, we could have done something. We put in a series of bids. Recycling is expensive."

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of Brighton and Hove City Council's Environment Committee, said: "We have invested heavily in expanding recycling.

"It is currently up to just under 27 per cent."

The best performer in Sussex was Horsham, which recycled and composted a total of 35 per cent.