Over 20% of all waste and recycling issues raised by the public take more than a week to resolve, a new survey reveals.

A poll of 1,000 UK adults has found more than one in five (21%) of all waste and recycling issues brought to councils by concerned residents take over a week to fix.

Commissioned by software company Yotta, the survey also discovered 8% of queries disappear and are never resolved.

Yotta’s software business development manager Steve White suggested this could be the result of ‘cumbersome and error-prone paper processes’ which could be addressed by digitisation.

Mr White claimed the adoption of new technology could improve ‘real-time communication between waste management crews and back office teams.’

‘Crews can report service issues and the back office can keep crews updated with the latest details on premises they need to visit, bins they must collect, assisted collections or security codes for locked gates, for example,’ he said.

‘This will enable councils to deliver a more proactive service, respond more quickly to public complaints and, therefore, improve the public’s overall perception of the work they do.’

The survey also revealed over half (54%) of the public’s queries are being answered within 48 hours and only 24% are answered on the same day.

The non-resolution figures are particularly high for some areas; for example 14% of issues in the North East are never properly addressed.

Overall, 35% of those polled said they had complained to a local authority about an issue relating to a waste or recycling collection.