One of them will be for rubbish that can be recycled.

And there will be a third container for food scraps. Whether people will have to push their bins to the kerb for collection will depend on where they live.

Calderdale Council's health and social care director Jonathan Phillips said: "We expect about 25 per cent of homes to continue to have black plastic sacks in their bins, which would be gathered in the usual way."

The change to bigger bins collected on alternate weeks and the introduction of special containers for table waste is to boost recycling and reduce the need for waste to be dumped in increasingly expensive landfill sites. Calderdale Council has spent two years preparing for the introduction of a new waste service for 90,000 properties.

Bids by contractors throughout Europe have now been evaluated and councillors are poised to decide which is the best and most cost-effective. The health and social care scrutiny panel will discuss the issue next Wednesday and make recommendations to the cabinet, which meets on January 28.

According to Mr Phillips, major changes are essential if the council is to avoid ever-increasing landfill taxes.

He said: "All contractors have said we will need wheelie bins and the main issue is how often they are collected."

Calderdale is one of the last areas in the country still using traditional bins and sacks emptied weekly.

Council officers favour the use of two separate wheeled bins – one for recylables and one for general waste – collected on alternate weeks, and the weekly collection of waste food caddies.

In that way, it should be possible to meet Government reycling targets for household waste which are now 30 per cent and will rise to 40 per cent in 2010 and 50 per cent by 2020.

This year, the council will spend just under £6 million on refuse collection but that is expected to rise under the new seven-year contract.

At this stage the fully costed bids and even the names of the firms that have tendered for the work remain confidential.

In a Courier poll earlier this year, 91 per cent said the council should introduce wheelie bins.

Courier Comment

Is now the right time to bring in wheelie bins in Calderdale? Vote now in our poll on the right.

* A trial scheme for collecting food scraps from 6,500 houses in parts of Halifax and Todmorden has been hailed as a success, with 40 per cent of homes taking part. But it is costing £192 per ton to collect and process the waste compared with £150 per ton if it went directly into a tip.