THE launch of the county’s new household recycling regime has encountered “some teething problems” but East Lothian Council says it is taking measures to iron out any issues.

All of East Lothian moved to weekly recycling collections from Monday, November 15, with domestic recycling now separated into four streams: paper and card in a blue box; cardboard in a separate blue box or a larger cardboard box; glass bottles and jars in a green or black box; and plastic, cans and cartons in a new weighted bag. Food waste is also collected in a grey caddy at the same time.

East Lothian Council said the initiative would pick up more recycling and the frequent collections would mean not as many boxes being used.

But in its first week of operation, the new system did encounter problems, with some communities experiencing delays in uplifts and some residents telling the Courier they had still to receive their new weighted bag.

A council spokesperson said: “The introduction of the new weekly recycling service is the first major change to household recycling collections for seven years. It provides households with a single collection of all recyclable materials on the same day each week through purpose-built collection vehicles with separated compartments.

“The introduction of the new service means for some households the day for their collections has changed.

“Inevitably, any introduction of changes on this scale has resulted in some teething problems.

“Where properties have been missed or have reported they still require a new bag, we have additional collections and deliveries under way to ensure the service will be on track and are responding to requests as quickly as possible.

“We also have properties presenting material that is not in the right container and we would ask these residents to sort and re-present next week, bearing in mind we are now on a weekly cycle.

“This particular kerbside recycling collection system has been in operation by a number of other councils across the UK and, once bedded in, delivers improved quality and uplift in recycling.

“If we are to meet our climate change objectives, we all need to work together and we remain committed to resolving any issues that are presented as quickly as possible.”