'FRUSTRATED' council bosses announced the reinstatement of a key waste collection service — hours after the Telegraph highlighted a dramatic spike in landfill tonnage.

Municipal Buildings chiefs are preparing to resume the gathering of household food waste from next week after previously deciding to suspend it amid the coronavirus crisis.

The move was announced late on Tuesday afternoon.

We had earlier revealed that hundreds of tons more waste than usual is being dumped at landfill during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to reopen the recycling centre at Pottery Street in Greenock when it is deemed safe to do so.

Environment and regeneration convener, Councillor Michael McCormick, said: "Disruption to waste services has been frustrating for everyone, including the hard-working council staff who have done ever so well to maintain weekly kerbside collections while carefully planning a return to full service during extremely challenging circumstances."

Uplifts from green food waste bins will resume across the district on Monday.

Over 700 tons more rubbish was taken to landfill last month compared with April last year — a total of 2,930 tons.

The council suspended blue bin recycling collections on April 4, meaning all household rubbish — including a large amount of reusable material — has been going into the black/grey bins which are currently being uplifted on a weekly basis.

Bosses blamed staff shortages within the council and at their contractor, who process recyclable materials, for the decision.

Food waste collections had also been abandoned, adding further to the amount going to landfill.

Now they will restart.

Councillor McCormick said: "Hot on the heels of dedicated brown bin collections and the sale of garden waste permits resuming a fortnight ago, I'm pleased that separate food waste uplifts will recommence next week.

"It's another small but important step towards some form of normality during these unprecedented times."

The council says that waste collection services had to be altered during lockdown due to staff shortages through workers either self-isolating or for medical/illness reasons.

Blue recycling bin collections remain off, however, the local authority says it is continuing dialogue with the contractor to bring them back 'as soon as possible'.

Councillor Chris McEleny has complained about the situation, highlighting the fact that neighbouring Renfrewshire and North Ayrshire councils have both been able to maintain their services.

On April 21 the council stated it was aiming to restart blue recycling bin collections as 'an urgent priority'.

Householders have been asked to put out their green food waste bins by 7am on their regular collection days.

The bins are for all sorts of leftover or unwanted food, such as raw and cooked meat, fish and eggs, as well as bones and shell, and even out-of-date food that is still in its packaging.

To obtain new food waste bags for inside the bins, residents should tie their last bag around the handle of the larger food waste bin on presentation day to alert collection staff who will leave a new roll.