CONTROVERSIAL proposals to collect blue landfill bins every four weeks are set to be dumped.

Fife Council have been trialling the scheme – slated by critics as "like going back to Victorian times" – since 2015 in a bid to save cash and boost recycling figures.

Households in parts of the Glenrothes area saw the blue bin collected every 28 days, instead of fortnightly, with the eventual aim of rolling it out across the Kingdom.

However, councillors will be asked to back a recommendation that the scheme is NOT introduced, although moves to collect the brown bin (food and garden waste) every four weeks in the winter are likely to be approved.

The Environment, Protective Services and Community Safety Committee will meet on Thursday and could also decide to close recycling centres, such as the facilities at Cuddyhouse Road, Cowdenbeath, and at Cartmore, in Lochgelly, for at least one day a week to save money.

The council's blue bin trials found that while recycling levels increased slightly, and the waste going to landfill was reduced, the new arrangements were too costly and led to an increase in contamination in the green (cans and plastics) bins.

Councillor Ross Vettraino, chair of the committee, said: “Firstly, congratulations must go to everyone who took part in the trials, which have been extremely important in forming recommendations on the way forward for the council’s bin collection and recycling services.

“The council now has a wealth of information on which decisions for the future can be taken.”

The idea of landfill bins being collected every four weeks proved controversial with a petition started in 2016 against the move.

Chris Ryan, who started the petition, said at the time: "Even in the perfect scenario, with the average family recycling enough that the blue bin is just filling at the end of the fourth week, at the bottom will be four-week-old rubbish.

"Every garden in Fife will have a bin full of rotting, rancid month-old waste and with the summer coming up, it'll attract vermin, pests and bacteria. Can you imagine the smell from four-week-old nappies?"

The council said that changes to national waste policy and recycling markets, as well as the level of contamination in landfill bins, had also counted against the introduction of four weekly blue bin collections.

However, the committee will be asked to approve a four weekly collection of the brown bins over the winter months, starting from next December.

Councillors will also discuss a report on proposed changes to opening hours at Fife Council's 11 household waste recycling centres.

Currently they are open 361 days a year but annual running costs are £2.4 million plus £2.38 million in landfill tax charges.

The moves would result in savings of £250,000 with options including centres closing for at least one day each week.

This would happen on a rotation basis to make sure that only one centre would be closed in central, east and west Fife each day.

All the centres would remain open at weekends.

Added Cllr Vettraino: “The council is aware that the closure of any facility, no matter how infrequent that closure may be, may not be universally popular, but every council is having to make savings in light of the ongoing financial situation.

"Fife provides significantly more recycling centres, at which landfill waste can also be deposited, than the majority of other local authorities in Scotland and every effort has been made to ensure that there will be minimum disruption for local people.”

The blue bin trials were put in place in 2015 with the aims of improving Fife’s recycling rate and limiting the amount of waste sent to landfill. They were also responding to public feedback asking for more frequent collections of cans and plastic.

Extensive monitoring took place, including a household survey of residents which indicated satisfaction levels with the service had dropped over the course of the trials.

A new strategy for Fife is now being developed, setting out a 10 year plan for dealing with waste and recycling.