Residents in Wigtownshire have been part of the Dumfries and Galloway Council scheme since November last year, and the service will get underway in the Stewartry by the end of March.
Next month households in Nithsdale will begin their recycling journey, followed by Annandale and Eskdale in May – with the rollout bill coming in at £23m.
But recycling was originally due to start on the doorsteps back in 2014.
A pilot scheme was launched in Wigtownshire then, but was beset by problems, complaints and rising costs and saw the whole plan kiboshed – leaving tens of thousands of specialist bins in storage for years.
Speaking at a launch event this week, councillor Andy Ferguson said he felt ‘relief’ as the new scheme was ready to go.
He said: “To be brutally honest, we’ve been behind the curve here. We should have been way in front of where we are.
“The early pilot down in Wigtownshire threw up some things that weren’t quite right, plus there was a change in what we needed to do.
“So rather than mess about, frankly, we’ve just relaunched it in Wigtownshire.
“A new, suped up, super duper version.”
And he added: “This administration was clear – this had to be sorted and it had to be sorted quickly. And to be fair to the officers, that’s exactly what we’ve done here.”
Most properties will receive two 240 litre recycling bins – with a red-lidded receptacle for plastics, metals and cartons; and a blue-lidded bin for paper, card and cardboard – to complement their existing household bin.
People will also be given leaflets on how to use the new bins, which feature notches to help the visually impaired differentiate between them.
However, Cllr Ferguson accepts that there is some trepidation in the community but urged people to accept the change.
He said: “It’s a big education job. If I wanted to get any message across it would be ‘we are only catching up on the rest of Scotland, the rest of the UK’.
“This isn’t us putting stringent measures in place, this is what every other local authority does as a matter of course.
“We just have to suck it up and get on with it.”
And he encouraged anyone struggling to reach out to the council via the helpline.
Communities director Derek Crichton has faith that the people of Dumfries and Galloway will welcome the new way of dealing with waste.
He said: “I think this is going to be transformational.
“For a long time now, the people of Dumfries and Galloway have expressed concerns that we don’t seem to be so climate friendly in terms of our waste arrangements and I’m very confident that the people of the region will embrace the new recycling arrangements.”
Mr Crichton echoed Cllr Ferguson’s encouragement for people to arm themselves with information, and said: “It’s really important with a major change like this that we ensure that as many people as possible know what the plans are.
“We’ve been embarking on a wide-ranging communications plan with individual residents, all residents have had information delivered to them on a personal basis.
“But we’ve also been engaging with local community councils who we believe have a pivotal role in exchanging information and also getting their feedback.”
The council has said it is committed to continuing to monitor the impact of the new service.
