THE success of the city's kerbside recycling scheme has taken Worcester City Council by surprise and left it unable to cope with the demand for bags.

Many residents have used up the initial eight-week supply of bags during the first two collecting rounds.

And the authority is struggling to get replacement sacks to householders so they can carry on recycling.

Almost 300 tons of paper and textiles and more than 42 tons of plastic and cans were collected in the first month of the initiative.

One keen recycler, Alan Smith, of Victoria Avenue in the city centre, said a lot of people would drop out of the scheme if they were not given new bags.

"I've had to ring up the council to get new bags," he said. "A lot of people who aren't that bothered about recycling aren't going to ring up."

He said about 70 per cent of residents in his road had taken part in the kerbside scheme when it started, but only 30 per cent put recycling bags out this week.

"It's going to fall flat on its face if the council doesn't restart it quickly," he added.

The council's operations bosses are currently wrestling with the unforeseen problem of how to get replacement bags to householders.

Head of operational services Mike Harrison said that as a result of the increased volume of material being collected each day, it had been necessary to review the proposals for delivering new bags.

"As the poor collectors will struggle to do this on top of their existing workload, we will shortly be informing residents of new arrangements," he said.

He said this would include the number of bags that would be delivered on each future occasion.

If residents want more bags in the short term, either collect additional supplies from the Butts Depot from 8am to 4.30pm on weekdays, or ring the helpline on 01905 722465.