Citizens donate tonne of toys to help others

The Christmas Toy Container project proved extremely successful, with pre-loved toys donated at Council recycling centres (HRCs) to Restore (Habitat for Humanity) in Ballymena, Restore (East Belfast Mission) in Larne and Blythswood Ireland in Carrickfergus.

Council’s HRC’s were busier than ever before this Christmas, with staff going the extra mile to ensure services were available when they were needed most. Waveney Road HRC in Ballymena saw over 1,000 visits a day during Christmas 2019, compared to 600 per the rest of the year. Over the two-week holiday period, an amazing 300 TV’s were collected at the site, while glass recycling was up across all the HRCs.

During 2019, Council’s five recycling centres welcomed 550,000 visits from residents, collected 21,000 tonnes of waste and separated 71% of that waste for re-use and recycling, representing an increase of one per cent on the figure for 2018.

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Cr Maureen Morrow, congratulated staff and residents for their great efforts to recycle and re-use. She said: “It is very encouraging to see that, thanks to the hard work of our residents and staff, we are now recycling more waste than ever before. Council’s Household Recycling Centres were only closed for three days over the Christmas period to allow residents to recycle as much as possible and this was helped greatly by people sorting their recyclables before entering the sites to ensure a quick and easy visit. I would also like to thank all those who donated to Council’s Christmas Toy Container appeal which attracted a fantastic response. Because of the generosity of the people in the borough, families who often find Christmas a challenging time were given a helping hand.”