THE council has given the green light to a new bin system that would see rubbish collected every week.

East Ayrshire Council (EAC) this week approved a brand new triple stacking system that will see it revert back to weekly bin collections.

East Ayrshire Councillors last week approved plans in introduce the new system.

It will see the new triple stacking system introduced in to the majority of homes which would see the integration of the kerbsider collected materials, including paper and cardboard, to the weekly kerbsort vehicle collections.

There will be a handful of flats or terraced houses that will not be suitable for the new system.

The new system has been used by councils in Wales and Northern Ireland since 2013.

The triple stack system is a box system which fits within a wheeled trolley. The individual boxes are fitted with a flap which you put your rubbish in to and each box will be clearly labelled with which types of material can be thrown into each one.

The top box, which will have a blue lid will be for paper and card, the middle box will have a red flap and will be for plastics and cans and the bottom box will have a grey flap and is for glass. Additionally, the food container bin can be attached securely to the handle of the new stacking system

The capacity of the paper and card box will be reduced but will be emptied weekly rather than four weekly.

To implement the new system the EAC will now have to buy 57,700 triple stacks as well as 10 of the new kerbsort vehicles.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) approached EAC in July this year to inform them that funding was being made available to support the implementation of the system.

The switch to the new system is also set to save EAC a cool £130,000 from 2019/20.

The ZWS grant sees the council receive £1,731,000 towards the purchasing of the new bins as well as £140,000 towards one new collection vehicle.

Following the full implementation of the system in 2018/19 there will be a reduction of one driver and three bin men.

Speaking as the proposal was approved at a Cabhinet meeting last week, Council Leader, Douglas Reid said: "I think there's an opportunity for us here. We know the issues we have with the current recycling process, with the plastic bottles blowing all over the street and issues we've had with keeping the place tidy. People want to recycle, people are interested in saving the council money because people are attuned to that and I think that does a lot."

Depute Leader of the Council, Tom Cook added: "It certainly simplifies for people trying to remember which day to put which bin out. They're all going out on the same day and that will be a big advantage."

The council will now undertake a campaign to make East Ayrshire residents aware of the changes.