WEST Dunbartonshire Council is considering a proposal for rubbish collection once every three weeks.

A pilot plan was to go before the infrastructure, regeneration and economic development (IRED) committee this week.

But bosses pulled back after the Scottish Government’s new 20p bottle deposit scheme was announced, saying they’ll need to calculate how it could affect rubbish and recycling volumes locally.

The idea of reducing rubbish collection to once every three weeks was considered as a budget cut for the area in recent months but was scrapped when the books were balanced.

Scotland has banned biodegradable municipal waste going to landfills from January 2021, and council chiefs need to drastically improve their figures.

The committee heard how West Dunbartonshire has the lowest cost per waste collection per premise in Scotland and well below the Scottish average.

But the recycling rate locally is one of the worst.

Original committee papers, before the idea was removed, said a three-weekly collection was a "proven method of enforcing the recycling behavioural change that is necessary to drive an improvement in recycling performance".

It said this was demonstrated after 2010/11 when waste bins were emptied every fortnight instead of weekly.

Recycling rates then improved from 31 per cent in 2008/9 to 38 per cent after 2010/11.

The rate has since only reached 45 per cent and the target is 53 per cent.

A survey two years ago found 48 to 61 per cent of bin contents could be recycled.

Council bosses calculated of the 22,700 tonnes of waste sent to landfills in 2017/18, half could have been recycled.

They said a new report would be brought to committee on the issue considering the deposit scheme.

Richard Cairns, the strategic director of regeneration, environment and growth, told councillors said they needed to look at what would change people's behaviour.

He said part of their application for funding from Zero Waste Scotland would be for running a "behavioural change campaign".

Mr Cairns added: "Anything we can do through schools and the education system would be a desirable thing."

Councillors approved the amended 2019/20 delivery plan without the three-weekly collection pilot.