USED needles, teaspoons holding a suspicious brown liquid, knives and even bullets are just some of the items home-owners in Barrow are dumping in their recycling, bosses of a waste firm have revealed as they launch a series of changes and say "things will now be better".

FCC Environment has borne the brunt of frustration over changes to Barrow's waste collection services since they took over the contract in April.

The Mail was given exclusive access to the firm's operations in Barrow and FCC bosses responded to the criticism.

They say that claims FCC was attempting to inflate profits by moving to a four-day collection system are wrong, as this change was in fact stipulated and agreed by Barrow Borough Council.

The amount the council was prepared to pay for the waste collection - between £1.8m and £2.5m a year, was significantly lower than previous contracts, which council bosses have admitted was a cost-saving exercise. FCC is paid £2m a year for its seven-year contract with the council.

Assistant director Keith Johnson said: "Over the period to 2020, the council’s annual operating budget will fall by £2.7m.

"Elected members approved a package of measures aimed at achieving this extremely challenging reduction.

"In re-tendering this major contract, the council had to make savings, and there have been some reductions made in the frequencies that some parts of the borough are swept."

The amount the council was prepared to pay for street cleaning has also significantly reduced and The Mail can also reveal that FCC has not, outside of the initial three-month settling-in period, done anything which would warrant a financial penalty.

The council had previously provided a free garden waste collection but this was scrapped to save money and FCC now runs a separate system where residents must pay £35 a year to have their brown bins emptied once a fortnight.

The so-called garden waste club has been hit by a series of problems including bins not being collected on time, or not at all, and the service closing to new subscriptions after being overwhelmed by high demand.

The scheme is now open to new members and as of this week, FCC says "things will get better" since the new four-day week and a daily garden waste collection started from Monday.

FCC has faced criticism recently from home-owners who claim FCC won't empty their bin because it is contaminated.

Recycling is carried out at the company's main depot in Walney Road.

The company says home-owners are putting not only non-recyclable material in their red bins but also highly dangerous items such as knives, used needles and broken glass. Many are putting their recycling in carrier bags which they place inside the bin.

Items found recently in recycling include used needles, a teaspoon containing residue which was likely heroin, bullets, knives, scissors and even a dead cat.

Because of the risk to the safety of staff whose unenviable job is to pick through the litter, they are not allowed to open any bags.