A third of councils are failing to record how many single-use plastic bottles they have procured over the last five years, according to new research.

A freedom of information request by SodaStream found 34% of councils do not hold such information, with more than half (55%) failing to monitor how many bottles they recycled or sent to landfill.

The research also found that only 8% of all councils approached had policies in place for plastic bottle usage in their owned or leased premises, with 14% having such policies in place for staff or elected officials.

Tiago Alves, general manager UK at SodaStream, said: ‘As councils provide the means for households in the UK to recycle their plastic waste, they need to be setting an example to the general public. They may actually be doing a good job but the picture is unclear as many do not hold the information or they simply didn’t respond to the freedom of information request.

‘Our report shows that the findings might be only the tip of the iceberg as the request only focussed on single-use plastic bottles and not other products such as plastic straws and bags for example.’