Plans to move over to possible fortnightly collections of waste in Dundee have been bitterly opposed by opposition councillors.
Wheelie bins would still be emptied by Dundee City Council every seven days but under a new method, which would see people put out their plastic, glass and metal waste and the next week their general waste.
The change is being considered by the city council and will be the subject of a report to councillors in March.
It has been prompted by the council’s efforts to meet Scotland’s Zero Waste plan, which aims to have 70% of waste recycled or composted by 2025.
The most recent figure showed Dundee’s rate to be 32.4%, below the country’s average of 40.1%.
“We are looking at ways to improve the efficiency of our waste disposal and collection to meet the Zero Waste target,” said environment convener Craig Melville.
“We would like to do this in a more cost-effective way but the main aim of this is to improve the efficiency of the service to improve the amount of recycled waste we collect.”
There would be an early cost in providing new bins for recyclable waste but this would be offset in the long run through a more efficient service.
“At the moment we have a situation where a lot of recyclable waste is put out with general waste in the weekly collections. This is something we’d like to change to make the sorting stage more efficient,” he added.
“By separating recyclable waste from general waste and having them collected on alternate weeks, the amount of recyclable waste that we collect will increase and be easier to process.
“Doing it this way will also mean the volume of waste that is only general refuse will reduce, so there would be no need for it to be collected every week.
“Collecting it once a fortnight should be sufficient in the same way that collecting recyclable waste fortnightly will be enough.”
Mr Melville said the plan will be fully investigated and all views considered before a decision is taken.
Opposition councillors were not impressed, however, with Labour’s Richard McCreadie saying: “I have concerns about the impact that fortnightly bin collections will have on the community.
“People will be concerned that rubbish will be left out for longer, that some rubbish will not be stored in bins and people will be concerned about rats and other vermin.”
He will also be seeking a guarantee there will be no job losses as a result of the change of policy.
Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson added: “This proposal will be deeply unpopular with residents and will without doubt lead to problems of refuse build-up in streets and in back areas of flats.
“Dundee has a high density of flats and tenement accommodation, much of which has limited refuse storage space, so their proposal to move away from weekly bin collections is bound to lead to problems of build-up of rubbish.”
If it is approved by the environment committee it will be introduced on a rolling basis area by area. The change would not be made in the near future.
Also, new, bigger bins would be issued for recyclable waste to replace the existing boxes which are, at the moment, emptied once a fortnight.
Paper and garden debris are already collected separately and on alternate weeks.