Moray Council is poised to resume recycling collections next week after concerns were raised about fly-tipping while residents were asked to store rubbish at home.
The authority suspended pick-ups of glass, tins, plastic and paper on March 30 after being forced to reduce crew numbers to comply with social distancing rules.
The service has also been hit by a reduction in staff due to the need for some to self-isolate due to coronavirus concerns.
Now the council has announced it will bring back most collections next week after some staff completed a period of isolation.
Moray MP Douglas Ross had raised concerns about the impact a longer delay would have on fly-tipping across the region.
Last night, council leader Graham Leadbitter praised the work done by crews to restore the collections.
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead added: “The temporary suspension of recycling collection was clearly necessary while both the council and the recycling and haulage industries all adjusted to the very rapid changes that have occurred.
“This partial reinstatement will take a lot of pressure off households, many of whom were starting to worry about storage of recycling.”
Elsewhere, Aberdeen City Council have reduced recycling collections from two-weekly to four-weekly during the lockdown.
Highland Council have suspended garden waste collections while all household pick-ups by Aberdeenshire Council have continued as normal.
The new arrangements from Moray Council will take effect from Monday, with blue and pink bins being collected on the same day as green bins.
Mr Leadbitter said: “While it is not possible to reinstate kerbside glass collection, the community recycling points with glass bins and some supermarket glass collection points will now be available and I would encourage people to try and incorporate glass disposal into shopping trips to avoid unnecessary travel.”
Yesterday Moray Council explained staff had been investigating ways to restore collections for the last week.
A spokesman said: “Following a period of self-isolation and the implementation of social distancing within the workforce, there is now sufficient capacity to re-instate collection of blue and purple bins on a three-weekly schedule from Monday.
“These will be collected on the same day as residents’ normal green bin collection day and details of that can be found on the council’s bin day finder page on its website.
“Glass for kerbside collection cannot be accommodated yet, but work is ongoing to enable servicing of a network of unmanned glass recycling points.”
