It was always a target too big to miss for ironists. That the city of the “right on” with the only Green MP in the country had one of the worst recycling rates in the country.

It was a pretty big stick to beat the Green-controlled city council with before they lost power last year.

Now recycling rates under Labour are even worse. They’re at an all-time low and look appalling compared with a city like Bristol for example.

And this shouldn’t be just dismissed as the missing of artificial targets.

Recycling remains an important weapon in halting the exhaustion of the world’s resources.

To be fair it is probably too early to judge Labour’s record on this issue.

Bigger bins in outlying areas for recycling might help for the small boxes in denser areas are hardly an incentive to seriously recycle the amounts needed and make for a messy environment.

One recommended proposal, the introduction of fortnightly instead of weekly perishable bin collections, appear to have been summarily dismissed as an option for the city.

In many places the weekly collection now alternates between recyclable and perishable waste.

That may be premature. There is clear evidence that, faced with the prospect of bulging bins for a fortnight, residents in other areas of the county are making far greater efforts than city folk to separate their waste.

There is much, much more work to be done before Brighton and Hove ceases to be the butt of recycling jokes.