Bottle banks have been axed after a decision was made to wave goodbye to all nine of a borough’s collection points.

Tonbridge and Malling council has confirmed bottle, can and plastic banks across the district will be removed.

The announcement was made on the recommendations of the council's communities and environment scrutiny select committee.

A report to the council's cabinet on Tuesday last week (February 13) heard deposits of glass and plastic at most of its sites had fallen by about 90% since they adopted kerbside collections for recycling waste in October 2019.

Information also showed paper and cardboard deposits dropped by 65% during the same period.

It is estimated the cost of removing the sites could total £30,000 but it could also lead to annual savings of more than £100,000.

Of the area's nine collection points, seven are in car parks at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons supermarkets.

Tonbridge and Malling council’s cabinet member for transformation and infrastructure, Cllr Martin Coffin (Con, Wrotham), said: "These sites date back to the time before we had a full recycling service.

"Now we collect from almost every household it no longer makes sense to maintain them, especially given the evidence that they are being abused by some businesses so they can avoid paying commercial rates for waste collection.

"I’m proud of our residents’ high rates of recycling, and making these changes will allow us to focus on continuing to improve the weekly service we provide to residents and further reduce the environmental impact of waste."

Across Tonbridge and Malling, almost half of all waste is now recycled or composted.

Cabinet members were also told of the 57,000 household in the borough, just 124 do not have access to kerbside recycling collections.

Many of these are rented properties where either a landlord, or the nature of a property, prohibits communal recycling facilities being installed.

Such homeowners are now being urged to use Kent County Council (KCC) recycling centres, or to ask neighbours if they are willing to share capacity in their bins.

Textile, book and other charity collection points on land not owned by the council, such as supermarket car parks, may remain in place.

Council recycling bank locations:

Asda Car Park – Kings Hill

Bailey Bridge Car Park – Aylesford

Hadlow College – Hadlow

High Street Car Park – West Malling

Morrisons Car Park – Larkfield

Rocford Road Car Park – Snodland

Sovereign Way Car Park – Tonbridge

Station Approach – Borough Green

Tesco Car Park – Larkfield

Village Hall Car Park – Burham