Households in South Oxfordshire may wait for up to three months to receive a new bin.

A manufacturer shortage has been blamed for the delay in deliveries of brown bins to residents who pay to have their garden waste collected.

South Oxfordshire District Council, which charges residents £30 a year, ran out of supplies on June 27 and it does not expect anymore deliveries until September.

In the meantime, the council is handing out clear plastic sacks for the waste.

It usually takes just a couple of weeks for bins to be delivered once ordered.

A council spokesman said: "It seems there are quite a few local authorities in the UK who have had similar problems due to manufacturer difficulties."

However, the Vale of White Horse District Council, which charges residents £33 a year, claimed customers would only have to wait until next week for a delivery of the large 240-litre bins.

There are still plenty of the smaller 140-litre brown bins available.

Currently, 950 people are on the waiting list for a brown bin.

A spokesman for the Vale of the White Horse District Council said: "Our waste contractors Veolia has provided some people who have been waiting for a new bin with some clear sacks to fill with garden waste and put out for collection to be composted.

"If anyone waiting for a bin is a new customer to the scheme, their membership renewal will not be due until the anniversary of the date they receive their bin.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this unavoidable delay and hope it will be soon resolved when we take delivery of some new bins."

Cherwell District Council said it a scheduled delivery of blue and brown wheelie bins that were due arrive at the end of June from the same supplier had been delayed.

A spokesman added: "The bins were delivered last week, slightly behind schedule, but we have them now and no one was affected by this delay.

"We have placed all our bin orders until of the financial year in April, 2009.

"However, we have been told that if you we to the suppliers today to order bins, it would take until January 2009 before they could be delivered."

Oxford City Council and west Oxfordshire said their supply of recycling bins has not been affected.