Mr Corrigan said the blue bin at his own home in Balgillo is already full and there were many people he knew who bought more newspapers than he did.

He said, “If the council is serious about recycling then they should consider scheduling a blue bin collection just after Christmas or the New Year.

“Asking people to store paper in their own homes because their bin is full is certainly not going to encourage them to recycle this material. If it’s so important to recycle paper, then lets see more collections.”

Councillor Corrigan said he believed his last blue bin collection was in early December and his next is not until January 31, a gap of almost two months.

He said if the council was able to make two collections per month of garden waste and three in May and November then surely extra paper collections could be introduced.

Christmas and New Year always bring a huge increase in the volume of waste paper through cards, boxes, wrapping paper, etc.

The council’s environmental services and sustainability convener, Julie Sturrock, encouraged householders in early December to recycle their waste paper, with the council having produced a booklet containing tips with particular relevance to the festive season.

Collection days vary around the city and some areas will have had paper uplifts at a later date in December than Councillor Corrigan and may have collections scheduled for an earlier date in January.

Today, however, the council said it was not possible to have extra collections of paper over Christmas or New Year.

A spokesman said, “All our resources during the festive season are dedicated to refuse collection. That’s the priority and because the crews are concentrating on that, we can’t provide extra paper collections.

“Our advice would be that, where possible, people should make use of recycling centres in their local area if they can get to them.”