BIN collections and charges will be reviewed after East Lothian Council’s waste and recycling service was identified as being at high risk of failing to meet its targets and deliver its service.

Concern over the impact of Brexit and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) on the service’s income, as well as ongoing negotiations for a new kerbside collection contract, saw the service’s risk of being unable to meets its targets increase this year.

Tom Reid, head of infrastructure, told a virtual meeting of the council’s audit and governance committee that the emphasis remained on recycling but the services on offer had to meet the needs of residents.

Councillor Gordon Mackett asked Mr Reid if there were any plans to reduce the fortnightly collection of the green household waste bins to once a month, as has been done with the brown garden waste bins.

Mr Reid told the committee there were no plans to introduce a change “as yet”, pointing out there was a fine line between providing a service which met demand or seeing a rise in fly-tipping incidents.

Rating the risk at high for waste and recycling services, the infrastructure risk register reported that “uncertainty over future kerbside collection model means we will be unlikely to achieve the recycling target of 60 per cent by 2020”.

It added: “The Scottish Government intends to introduce legislation in relation to Scotland’s deposit return scheme for glass, steel, aluminium and PET drinks containers. The scheme is likely to result in a significant loss of high-value materials to the waste service, therefore impacting on the cost effectiveness of delivering kerbside recycling services. ”

The register noted that DRS would effectively remove high-value materials from kerbside collection, reducing the income they generate, which is used to offset the cost of kerbside collections. The Scottish Government has delayed introducing DRS until July next year.

Mr Reid said that the service was struggling with legislation from home and abroad.

He said: “Waste and recycling are in a very difficult position in terms of national and European legislation and politics.”

Actions agreed to tackle the risk were to procure a new kerbside collection contract and review “service provision and charges for services”.