Birmingham's Labour cabinet member in charge of bins has ruled out privatisation or outsourcing of refuse collection services in the city.
Coun Lisa Trickett, the cabinet member for a green and sustainable city, also told an inquiry into the green waste debacle that, in an era of severe budget cuts, they would not be restoring the previously free garden waste service.
But she also confirmed that, unlike neighbouring authorities such as Sandwell, the service would not be farmed out to private operators.
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Refuse collection is one of the few areas of activity which has not been outsourced.
Coun Trickett (Lab Moseley and Kings Heath) explained that, with the £30 million government weekly refuse collection grant currently being spent on a million wheelie bins, a fleet of new dustcarts and depot upgrades, the council was not about to hand the service over to another operator.
"There was uncertainty over the future of the service and whether there would be externalisation. There is not going to be at this time," she said.
She added that the authority was working up a 'waste as a resource' strategy to see if the council could generate more income or more energy from the millions of tonnes of rubbish collected.
By ruling out privatisation, she said, they could now install computer systems in the new dustcarts to allow binmen to instantly record whether bins had been collected or not and have up-to-date lists of households which had paid for the green waste collection.
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Council leader Sir Albert Bore was last week asked about the bins service during his press briefing on the council's funding crisis and pointed out that previous attempts to put the service out to tender had always ended up with the in-house service proving best value and winning the contract.
Meanwhile, Coun Tricket, during evidence to the connectivity and sustainability scrutiny committee inquiry, admitted the withdrawal of free doorstep collections of garden waste had been introduced too quickly.
She blamed the cuts in government funding for the need to reduce costs overnight which led to problems with dumped bags blighting many neighbourhoods.
The issue has been a political hot potato this year and opposition Tories and Lib Dems claim their calls for the free collection, which was introduced in 2007, to be restored helped them make gains and
There was huge outcry with queues of cars dumping green waste at tip during bank in the roads and left uncollected for weeks on end.
But Coun Trickett justified the charges, adding: "The idea that you can leave anything on the pavement and the council will pick it up for free is wrong and unsustainable."
The committee heard that council bosses had warned those who persistently fly-tipped green waste by the roadside would be taken to court.
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Two prosecutions are already in the pipeline and a handful of others have been given £80 fines for leaving bags of grass cuttings in the street.
While most residents have now become aware the service is no longer free, council enforcement officers are now using ten mobile CCTV cameras, as well as fixed security cameras, to target many of the city's 500 fly-tipping hotspots in a bid to stop those who continue to dump their bags.
Coun Tricket said: "This is not dumped green waste, it is fly-tipping. It is illegal."
She stressed they were also focused on educating residents and providing alternatives to doorstep collections including asking communities, housing associations and landlords to assist as well as funding some composting schemes.
This was echoed by the head of enforcement Jacqui Kennedy who said most residents, when challenged by officials over dumping bags, took the rubbish back and fell into line.
The inquiry is due to report back later this year.