Reduced opening hours at the majority of Aberdeenshire recycling centres will take effect from Monday.
There was a groundswell of opposition late last year when the council revealed it planned to close Insch and Portsoy centres.
However after campaigns against both, the authority performed a U-turn and decided to cut hours at all of its facilities, apart from Portlethen and Alford.
The authority revealed it had scrapped plans to close the Insch and Portsoy centres after widespread opposition.
Most sites will now close at 4.30pm, or 4pm on Fridays, and sites with seasonal extended opening hours on a Tuesday evening will now close at 7pm.
Portsoy and Insch will remain open from 9am-12pm and 12.30pm-16.30pm on a Tuesday and Saturday.
Each site will be also be open on Tuesday evenings until 7pm from April to September.
The changes come as part of a new waste strategy which aims to push up the area’s recycling rate and slash the amount of materials sent to landfill ahead of a ban on the practice.
It also outlined plans to reduce fortnightly bin collections to every three weeks.
Currently the region’s recycling rate is 43.7% and these changes are a step towards a recycling rate of more 70%.
