THOUSANDS of wheelie bins are being delivered to homes across Tendring as part of the roll-out of a new waste service in the district.

Town Hall bosses approved controversial plans to introduce wheelie bins and fortnightly waste collections in Tendring last year.

Tendring Council decided to move from weekly to fortnightly collections for non-recyclable waste as part of a seven-year extension to its waste and recycling contract with Veolia.

Most homes in the district will have a black 180-litre wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste, which will be collected fortnightly, from this summer.

The bins will be delivered to homes across the district from June 10 for households to use for the black bag waste.

Once delivered homes will be on a fortnightly collection service for the wheelie bins, with a weekly collection of food waste and an alternate weekly recycling collection.

The council said not all properties are having a wheelie bin as those with no suitable side access or front garden, and some rural routes, and in these cases they will continue to have a weekly black sack collection.

Most homes will have a new collection day and details will be provided with the new bin.

Jon Hamlet, the council’s street scene manager, said the roll-out will take ten weeks to complete but that the new service would be an improvement.

“We understand this is quite a big change and something that affects everyone in Tendring, which is why we are urging people to start preparing for it now,” Mr Hamlet said.

“We’ll be putting out more information as we get closer to the start of the roll-out, but would advise residents to look now at our website to remind themselves if they are getting a wheelie bin, and what their new collection day will be.

“We would also always recommend people look at how they can increase the amount they recycle and now would be a good time to replace your recycling boxes or food caddy if they’re lost or broken.”

Council bosses previously said replacing black bags with wheelie bins should stop the problem of animals tearing open rubbish bags - and will hopefully encourage people to recycle more.

They estimated cost of carrying on the contract without the changes would have cost the council £400,000 on top of the £4.25million it already pays each year.