White recycling bags went missing from 11 homes every day

Controversial white recycling bags were going missing from at least 11 homes in Wolverhampton every day before the unpopular scheme was scrapped, figures have revealed.

Wolverhampton City Council bosses received more than 4,000 calls from members of the public asking for replacement products to be issued in the final year of the scheme because the white bags kept blowing away in the wind.

The white bags for recycling plastic and cardboard cost taxpayers £1 each.

But the council has now just spent £1.7 million on new wheelie bins so the bags can be scrapped.

City Direct, the call centre for Wolverhampton City Council, received 4,073 requests for new bags in 2011 making it the fourth most common call from members of the public.

It outranked the number of reports to pest controls and general inquiries.

There were also 1,802 requests for new green boxes for paper, cans and glass. The council also had 5,845 requests for replacement biodegradable bags for food waste bins since they were introduced last year.

Every home was initially supplied with two rolls.

Following the overhaul of waste services in the city, people now use their old black wheelie bins for all dry recycling, a smaller brown bin for non-recyclable waste along with the green garden waste wheelie bin and the buckets for food waste.

The bags were brought in by the former Conservative-led administration of the council in 2009.

Labour bins chief Councillor Bob Jones said: "The scheme wasn't properly piloted and the council has lost a lot of money as a result. Now that people just put all their recycling in the same wheelie bin it is a lot more sustainable."

The council spent £90,000 on buying almost 100,000 white plastic bags in 2008, which were heavily criticised because they blew away after being emptied.