It comes after mayor Greg Conkey told The Daily Advertiser that the new food organics and garden organics (FOGO) waste could go into landfill if there were further delays in finding someone to process it.

The system, slated to come into effect on April 2, 2018, will see fortnightly collection of general waste and weekly collection of the FOGO waste.

North Wagga resident Austin Gregor, who was vocal about his opposition to the changes when they were announced earlier this year, said council should press pause on the project until it was ready.

“It would make sense to delay it, it’s a bit rich to tout how much they’d keep out of landfill and then turn around and dump it anyway,” Mr Gregor said. “They want to reduce the landfill but then they’ll put this waste in landfill… I think they need to delay the implementation until it’s all figured out.”

Council rejected tenders for FOGO processing in July, choosing to approach potential contractors directly. But now it will put the contract back out to tender without delaying the start date for the scheme.

Michael Formosa, who lived with a similar scheme in western Sydney six years ago, said there was no point implementing the changes if they weren’t ready.

“Just wait, you don’t go ahead if it’s not ready,” he said. “When you cook a meal you don’t serve it if it’s not ready.”

However, environmentalist Ros Prangnell said council should push on with the planned changes even if it would send organic waste into landfill in the short-term.

“They still need to push on as much as they can,” she said. “If it’s not resolved in time they’ve still got to go through the processes, this would be the best solution while they get them in place.”