Picking up domestic waste cost £104.22 per household across the district in 2008/09 – more than double that of neighbouring authority West Dunbartonshire – which spent £43.51.

East Dunbartonshire is ranked third highest for the cost of waste collection per home compared with other local authorities in an Audit Scotland performance report.

Overall, it spent more than £4.67million in 2008/09 collecting refuse from 44,866 homes.

It also spent £91.37 per home to dispose of waste, bringing the annual cost to almost £4.1million.

Rubbish and goods to be recycled are collected weekly across East Dunbartonshire.

The council defended the high costs and put it down to operating a frequent service.

A spokesperson said: "The higher costs of collection reflects our frequency of service. We have a more frequent uplift service than many other councils for both domestic and recycled materials.

"In terms of the costs of disposal, we are a smaller council and therefore do not have the advantage of relatively large quantities of waste for disposal, which would bring unit costs down.

"We also have no landfill sites within our boundaries and so incur higher transport costs for disposal."