The amount of waste Essex residents have produced since the start of the pandemic has soared, figures have shown – forcing Essex County Council (ECC) into having to pay almost £5million more to deal with it.

ECC has had to allocate the additional funds to deal with the 47,000 tonnes of extra waste produced so far during the coronavirus crisis - 13 per cent more than expected.

The money will be drawn from the Emergency Reserve fund. It will also ensure the safe operation of Recycling Centres, including traffic management and social distancing measures.

All waste collected in Essex is weighed prior to disposal.

Since the beginning of the current financial year there has been an increase in the quantity of waste requiring treatment or disposal across all streams – whether it be residual, garden and food.

The blended rate per tonne of managing the waste is £93.03, giving rise to an estimated cost of £3.5 million for the period to March 31, 2021.

It is estimated that Recycling Credits will be payable on an additional 9,946 tonnes giving rise to an estimated unbudgeted cost of £720,770 for the period to March 31, 2021.

And the estimated unbudgeted net expense resulting from the need to deploy traffic management actions at recycling centres is £660,382.

The increased waste load has not come as any surprise, but still raises questions about ECC's waste strategy which it is now looking to redraw. A key part of its waste strategy is the Tovi recycling centre in Basildon, which has been out of action since last year when ECC won a court case against the operators.

ECC Green councillor James Abbott said: "This comes back to the point about having flexibility.

"You would expect a significant change in waste patterns given lockdown.

"But if there was a more responsive flexible system then this type of unusual circumstance would have been better catered for."