ALL but two per cent of Cotswold households have received containers for the new waste collection/recycling service.

Cotswold District Council, which introduced the service, has given these households beige bin bags into which they can put non-recyclables, for collection, until their containers arrive.

Under the service, food and garden waste is collected weekly for composting, with all other refuse collected fortnightly.

Non-recyclable landfill waste is collected in grey, wheeled bins or beige bin bags; paper, glass, cans/tins and empty aerosols in kerbside recycling boxes and card and cardboard in reusable blue sacks.

Cllr Mark Tufnell, the council's environment portfolio holder, said: "More than 98 per cent of households have received their bins and bags and are recycling much more of their rubbish as a result."

"It is inevitable in a project involving more than 38,000 properties across 450 square miles that there will be some problems and I would like to thank residents for the patience and tolerance they have shown."

The service's first week saw recycling soar by 30 per cent, with more than 140 tonnes of recyclables collected compared to more than 110 tonnes a fortnight previously.

Non-recyclable landfill waste collected fell by more than 50 per cent.

SITA, the company the council contracted to run the service, has to use two vehicles to collect recyclables, one lorry for glass and cans and another for paper and cardboard.

A Gloucestershire County Council survey meanwhile revealed that, throughout Gloucestershire, more than 11,000 tonnes of newspapers and magazines are annually thrown away without being recycled.