The council has spent the last four weeks distributing 75,000 grey and green wheelie bins in preparation for the switch to a fortnightly system.

Under the new scheme, standard grey waste bins and green and red recycling containers will be emptied every other week on an alternate basis.

With three days until the change, Coun Michael Kinson (Con, Warwick West) urged residents to check the leaflets received earlier this week for details of collection dates.

And he asked all householders to give the new arrangements a fair chance.

To those for whom trepidation has been the prevailing feeling, he said: "Change is difficult to sell and what we are looking for is co-operation. There have been one or two issues and there are bound to be more - but we will address them.

"At the roadshows, 99.9 per cent of people were all for what we are trying to do in terms of recycling. There have been criticisms - but there has also been fantastic support, with thousands of requests for recycling containers.

"We are grateful to residents for their patience and understanding."

The change is part of a drive to recycle more, increasing the district's rate from a middling 29 per cent to an exemplary 45 per cent by 2010. This will avoid crippling European Union fines for exceeding target levels of waste sent to landfill.

For the first time, from next week batteries, engine oil, plastic bottles, card and cardboard can all be put in the red recycling boxes.

Council sources say the new system, administered by Sita after it won a £20 million five-year deal, has been accepted and understood in "the vast majority of cases". But homeowners who have contacted the Courier during the last few months have voiced considerable unease.

Despite two leaflet mail-outs and roadshows around the area, many have said they remain confused about what items can go in which bin, and when it will be collected. Others have claimed they have nowhere to store the containers, that they ruin their street's appearance scene or that the arrangement will be unhygienic, because though food can be put in the garden recycling bin, some rubbish will remain in the grey bins for 14 days.

And some refuse to view the alternate week element of the scheme as anything other than a cutback, despite increased costs.

Further problems emerged this week when, following the delivery of 100,000 leaflets, all lines to the Sort It enquiry number became jammed.

Repeated attempts to reach an operative proved futile on Wednesday - and the district council's main switchboard featured an automated message warning callers not to try any other departments for waste-related matters.

How have you found the new bin collections? Call the newsdesk on 457737 or email editorial@leamingtoncourier.co.uk