AS the fortnightly waste collection system hits one year in action, the Council have declared it a success.

The scheme, introduced last July, saw pickups become less regular and wheelie bins introduced.

A rocky start saw a surge in missed bin collections and complaints, but that was to be expected according to Karen Bomford, group manager for Maldon District Council, who is pleased with the way the contract has performed.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council’s Community Services Committee on Tuesday, she said: “Since the introduction of the new system, refuse has gone down by about a quarter. Dry recycling has increased by 11 per cent, which is a good increase but not amazing. That is mainly because we always had a high participation.

“We have gone from recycling 48 per cent of our waste to nearly 60 per cent recycling which is amazing and highly commendable.

“The residents seem to have embraced the new service, and we hope that we can push on next year and make it into the top 10 authorities UK wide for recycling next year.

“You can see that at the beginning we had quite a high level of missed bins which was very predictable. Going from weekly to fortnightly collections, all the crews were on new routes and people were putting bins out on the wrong day.

“Based off approximately 16,500 collections we will accept a level of ten missed bins, we are hitting that level. We are hitting our target and I personally think that is quite good.”