Missed recycling blamed on 'teething problems'
Stockton Borough CouncilAlmost 6,000 households did not have their recycling collected on the first day of a new system, prompting an apology from the local authority.
A cabinet member for Stockton Borough Council said it was overcoming "teething problems", while local Conservative MP Matt Vickers criticised the system as "chaos".
Waste crews will be sent back out on Saturday to catch up with the homes they missed.
Cabinet member for the environment Nigel Cooke apologised to residents who did not have their recycling collected but said he was "confident" the new system would "settle down".
"With a massive change like this we always expected some teething problems, this has been the biggest change that I've been associated with during my time on the council since 2011," he said.
Food waste collection has been brought in nationally and Stockton Council has implemented weekly recycling collections and fortnightly general waste collections.
Cooke said crews were operating a new fleet of vehicles and "technical faults" which were encountered were quickly overcome, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Vickers wrote to the chief executive of the council Mike Greene, asking for the local authority to "think again" about the waste collection approach.
He said there had been other issues, with "numerous reports of residents doing the right thing – taking the time to sort their waste – only to see it all mixed up and thrown into the same wagon".
"This isn't the fault of our hardworking bin men, they are doing a tough job."
Cooke said some old wagons were used to collect waste which did not have separate compartments but all of the waste was separated again at the recycling depot.
He said the old wagons were an interim measure while the council waited for the rest of the new fleet of vehicles to arrive.
