Buckets to be brought in for Sandwell foodstuffs

Controversial slop buckets will be introduced to 128,000 households in a Black Country borough next year, Sandwell Council has confirmed.

It says a "food recycling service" will be introduced by private company Serco, due to take over the boroughs' £650 million waste contract next month.

Under the plans householders will have to sort rubbish four ways - into garden waste, dry recycling, food waste and rubbish.

Two buckets will be given to each home, a five litre container for people's kitchens to collect food scraps and peelings and a 25 litre bin for the garden, which the kitchen buckets will be emptied into.

Serco could not confirm how often these bins will be collected.

Adam Fergie, spokesman for Serco said: "The new food waste service will be rolled out across Sandwell, between July 2011 and March 2012.

Similar schemes elsewhere have led to complaints on food smells, especially in hot weather, as well as vermin concerns .

But plans to introduce slop buckets to all of Wolverhampton's 98,000 homes in the new year have been met with opposition from some residents.

Councillors claim the plans are "heading for disaster" and say a pilot scheme should have been carried out before proposals were passed.