Dudley Council says it is working round the clock to catch up on late rubbish and recycling collections in the face of online complaints.
Collection of food waste became a legal requirement for all local authorities in 2026 and Dudley began its service in early April.
A BBC investigation found 79 councils (around 25%) were not ready to begin collections on time.
Dudley has delivered new waste bins and started its service but ran into problems with delayed or missed collections.
Nick McGurk, Dudley group director communities and growth, said: “We know that some residents across the borough have experienced delays with recycling or food waste bin deliveries and collections.
“Some pockets of recycling and food waste collections are currently around one to one-and-a-half days behind.
“We are operating seven days, with between seven and nine waste crews working on overtime, and we have significantly strengthened this work by bringing in a further 18 staff and 13 vehicles from our Street Scene service and other council teams to support collections and deliveries.”
Residents have been expressing frustration on Facebook about delays in collections as the service rolled out.
Helen Cronin from Stourbridge said: “There’s some round the Kingsway , sadly not the correct lorries for my three weeks missed black bin.”
Phil Smith added: “The mess in the streets is disgusting as it is and more and more people are fly tipping.
“The council can’t seem to organize anything these days and our taxes are just going up and up and we aren’t getting great services! The whole thing is a mess.”
People are also claiming not to have yet received their new bins, PeacefulLlama6714 said: “We don’t even have the new bins. They delivered them to everyone on our road and missed a couple of houses. We raised a complaint weeks ago and nothing.”
While Dudley Council did not confirm how many bins had not been delivered in time for the collection service to begin, Mr McGurk said: “More than 500 bins have also been delivered to residents following requests, and deliveries are continuing.
“Our contractor is working hard to deliver any missing containers to properties that are on the new service.
“Some properties in communal areas will receive the service, where possible, once we have carried out an assessment of the works required to install bin compounds and siting areas.
“We have also rapidly increased the number of new waste collection vehicles in service and collected more than 140 tonnes of food waste in the first week, 50 tonnes more than expected and twice the national average of 70 tonnes, which has impacted on the issues we are experiencing.”
He added ten new collection lorries have joined the fleet and the council expected services to be operating normally by the start of May.
“If your recycling or food waste bin hasn’t yet been emptied, please leave it out and our crews will return as soon as possible.
“We apologise for delays but again thank residents for such a great effort recycling food waste.
“We would like to thank residents for their patience, the outstanding take-up of the new service has meant we have more waste than we anticipated but we are working tirelessly to resolve these issues.”
The council says any food waste bins that have not been emptied should be left out for crews who will return as soon as possible and any enquiries should be sent to DMBCWaste26.Enquiry@dudley.gov.uk
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