Council chiefs say they are listening to the concerns of residents over the size of new recycling bags – but insist they must still be used in the meantime.
The move to a new dual stream recycling system has been launched across the Joint Waste partnership between Lichfield District Council and Tamworth Borough Council.
But it has emerged that some households across Lichfield and Burntwood have been receiving new blue bags for paper and card to be put in that are a third smaller than the 81-litre capacity expected.
But despite the issues, the local authorities say residents will still need to switch to separating out different elements into the new bags.
“The use of such bags to store cardboard and paper for recycling has been successfully adopted by numerous other councils, both within Staffordshire and across the UK.
“We are listening to residents’ concerns regarding the bag sizes and are working with our partner councils and the bag suppliers to ensure residents are given adequate recycling capacity.
“In the meantime, residents are requested to use the bags for paper and card as soon as they receive them.”
Lichfield District Council spokesperson
Councillors have also hit out after only finding out about the issue with the new blue bags when the initial story was published by Lichfield Live.
The issues have led to some calls for the cabinet member for recycling, Cllr Ashley Yeates, to resign.
A council spokesperson said:
“We are aware that some information was shared prematurely for which we apologise – this was human error and the contents had not been approved by the joint waste team or Cllr Yeates.”
Lichfield District Council spokesperson
