CONTROVERSY raged when Newport council introduced a pilot scheme to collect rubbish bins once a fortnight - but new figures suggest it has won over the critics.

And it also appears that the project has given another boost to the city's recycling efforts.

Household rubbish in some areas of Newport is now picked up once a fortnight, instead of every week, while recycling boxes are collected weekly.

More than 2,000 residents taking part in the pilot project returned questionnaires and 72 per cent said the scheme was acceptable with only one in seven, 15 per cent, saying it was unacceptable.

Residents were also asked whether they recycled before or as a result of the scheme, where they had seen recycling information, the number of times they had rubbish that didn't fit in their bin and to rate Wastesavers' performance.

All 9,000 pilot residents were sent the questionnaires at the end of May with 23 per cent replying by the closing date.

The main findings included:

l 88 per cent now recycle every week as a result of the pilot scheme;

l 71 per cent said the scheme had made them recycle or compost more;

l 22 per cent said rubbish did not fit in their bin every fortnight but only six per cent made more trips to the civic amenity site;

l 22 per cent home compost once a month or more.

Councillor Ray Truman, Newport's cabinet member for community safety and sustainable development, said: "We knew there were plenty of people in favour of the scheme but we're overwhelmed by the enormous support for it.

"Even the negative comments are understandable, though many of them are based on the cardboard issue or common misperceptions."

The questionnaire findings and the statistics from Wastesavers' collection rounds and the refuse vehicle collection rounds will be presented to him this month.

A decision will then be taken on the future of the scheme.